<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by saint:
The whole thing is idiotic since the USA doesn't need tourism dollars and Brazil desperately does.
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What USA does is just as idiotic : USA has a very large tourist economy that has been suffering since 9/11.
It is worth a reminder that USA is the 4th cheapest country in the world for long time tourists and retirees (ie if you avoid hotels) and has a very large contingent of foreign retirees in Florida etc. For some reason the US tourist industry seems not to be able to successfully lobby the US Congress . For example, USA makes it impossible for financially self-sufficient foreign retirees to spend more than 6 months/year in the USA. Even European countries that are normally hostile to all immigrants are more friendly to foreign retirees since they are no threat to the local job market.