$985 iPad in Brazil

"The iPad lists at FNAC and other Brazilian stores for $985, almost twice as much as in the U.S. and one of the highest official prices for an iPad anywhere, according to Macworld Brazil, a Brazilian newsletter run by U.S.-based International Data Group," Lucia Kassai and Cecilia Tornaghi report for Bloomberg.

"The iPad is one example of the many price distortions caused by Brazil's elaborate industrial policy," Kassai and Tornaghi report. "Companies that don't manufacture goods in Brazil have to pay stiff tariffs if they want to sell to the nation's consumers. Brazil levies a 60 percent tax on the iPad and as much as 90 percent on imported cars. A blouse that retails for $49.50 at The Gap in the U.S. goes for $82 in Brazil at non-Gap outlets. 'Brazilians sometimes pay luxury-good prices for second-rate items,' says tax specialist André Mendes Moreira, who writes a widely read financial column and tracks the impact of import taxes on everything from cars to champagne. 'The consumer is at a clear disadvantage.'"

Kassai and Tornaghi report, "Brazil imposes these stiff taxes on imports to promote local industry and encourage foreign manufacturers to set up factories inside the country. Samsung Electronics, for example, has been manufacturing locally since 1986. It now makes the Galaxy Tab, its answer to the iPad, at one of its Brazilian plants. In contrast to Samsung, Apple is a holdout. In March, Brazilian media reported that Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs was asked by the city of Rio de Janeiro to set up the country's first Apple Store in time for the 2020 Olympics. Jobs refused, citing the superhigh taxation of important electronics."

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