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12 FROM THE TOP » WILSON BRICIO, ZF September 2018 | AutoData trend towards newsuppliers here is quite large. We will also have to start thinking about what Brazil is going to produce in the future with these flourishing free trade agreements. If they do not happen wewill become a Cuba.Wewill probably be closing our borders to import and we will stay here trying to develop our technologies and soon we will be living with 40, 50 year old vehicles, similar to those that exist in Cuba today. I’m being realistic, I think it does not help Brazil if we start saying ‘let’s create a creed here, try to take everybody this way’, I thinkwe really have to accept that globalization is everywhere, that we have to internatio- nalize our economy, we have to be open for business, to be more competitive, we have to end the incentives, we do not need them. Do you believe that in a few years the Brazilian industry may cease to play a relevant role then? No doubt. Competitiveness is the name of the game. Which areas are we com- petitive in today? Let’s see. Material: our steel is 20% more expensive than anywhere else in the world, aside from the logistic cost. Labor: one of the lowest productivities that exist in the industria- lized world. Energy: for the industry, it’s expensive. Tax system: it takes ten ti- mes longer to do our tax management in Brazil than anywhere else in theworld. If we could simplify things and put that cost into R&D, product development, productivity improvement, I think Brazil would be much better. What miracle are we waiting for? When someone says ‘let’s be relevant, let’s become an export platform’, I say: Huh? Arewe going to re- gulate on the dollar? Howmuch will we need to depreciate the real to cover all these failures? There will be no miracle, encouragement, government, messiah that will solve this. In Brazil, would electrification have spa- ce in the heavy-vehicles and in the field? There are many implements in the field “We will stay here trying to develop our technologies and soon we will be living with forty, fifty year-old vehicles, just like those that exist in Cuba today.”