Incentive Program for Cabotage Navigation and Foreign Vessels

Cabotage is the transport of goods or passengers between two places in the same country. It originally applied to shipping along coastal routes, port to port, but now applies to aviation, railways, and road transport as well.

Cabotage rights are the right of a company from one country to trade in another country.

Published in the Union Official Diary of this Friday, August 30, the approval of a the resolution of the Investment Partnership Council of the the Presidency of the Brazilian Republic with the directives for police making regarding an Incentive / Stimulation Program to cabotage transportation to be named “BR do MAR”.

Foreign vessel means a vessel registered in accordance with the laws of another state or jurisdiction. Also referred to as “out-of-country.”

The Program Council considered that cabotage waterway transport was comparatively more efficient, safer and had lower environmental costs and impacts than road or rail. It has a greater participation of the waterway modal, especially cabotage transport, in the country’s logistic matrix is the most effective and expeditious measure to balance the excessive expenditures of the Union, States, Federal District and Municipalities in road and rail infrastructure projects;

The Council also considered the need to allocate areas located within public ports for temporary use and viability of investments to meet cargoes in type, route or market not yet existing or not consolidated in Brazilian cabotage, seen as essential for the reconfiguration of the logistics matrix of the country; the feasibility of the cabotage stimulation policy encompasses measures that optimise the use of Union revenues from the collection of the Additional Freight for the Renewal of the Merchant Navy, including to ensure investments in coastal navigation safety by the Brazilian Navy;

Actions and other measures to encourage cabotage, in particular those allowing greater participation of foreign vessels in Brazilian cabotage, will be considered of relevant public interest and strategically prioritised for all legal purposes; the powers assigned to the Special Secretariat of the Investment Partnership Program to strengthen national policies for the integration of different modes of transport of persons and goods, in accordance with national, regional and urban development, national defence, environmental, and environmental policies. security, formulated by the various spheres of government.

The Ministry of Infrastructure already foresees, for 2025, that the cabotage will have a 29% participation in the Brazilian transport matrix, through 205 waterway interventions, at a cost of R$ 15,8 billion.