FROM THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

WASHINGTON, DC -- At the time of the meeting of President Lula with President Bush on June 20, 2003, Secretary Snow and Minister Palocci launched a Group for Growth designed to examine strategies for raising productivity growth.
 
This group, chaired for the U.S. side by John B. Taylor, Under Secretary for International Affairs at the U.S. Treasury, and for the Brazilian side by Joaquim V. Levy, Secretary of the National Treasury, and Marcos Lisboa, Secretary for Economic Policy, both at the Brazilian Ministry of Finance, will hold its first meeting in Washington D.C. on August 27, 2003.
 
During the meeting, the Brazilian and U.S. delegations will hold a seminar on determinants of growth and measures to boost small- and medium-sized enterprises, including access to credit and capital markets.  The meeting will also offer a venue for each side to present an overview on recent growth performance and discuss recent trends and prospects in the fiscal area.

Both countries are putting in place policies to raise growth, with voting on key reform legislation in Brazil and the implementation of major jobs and growth legislation in the United States. Closer understanding of the underpinnings of economic activity and reforms in each country is thus of mutual interest.