São Paulo, Brazil, 26 Oct – The president of China’s Chery group, Yi Tongyue, reiterated on Tuesday that the US$400 million investment in a factory in Jacareí in Brazil’s São Paulo state will be maintained, the Brazilian press reports.

The Chery president said during a teleconference that the Brazilian government’s decision to raise the tax on industrial products for automobiles with less than 65 percent national incorporation has only increased the desire to move the production start forward to before September 2013.

Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court unanimously ruled last week that the federal government’s measure to increase the tax could only take effect in the second half of December.

The court’s members held that immediate application of the rule is unconstitutional given that any tax change can only take force 90 days later so that taxpayers are not taken by surprise. (macauhub)