ABTP President believes that legal framework will be approved in 2025

Experts discuss expectations and highlight challenges in modernizing port operations and labor relations at InfraJur

The first InfraJur panel, which is part of the Sul Export 2025 Forum, held this Monday (28), in Porto Alegre, discussed the possibilities of transformation and growth that may arise with the approval of the new port legal framework. Bill 733/25 regulates the exploration of ports, port operation activities and port work, and was authored by Federal Deputy Leor Lomanto Júnior (BA).

According to the president of the Brazilian Association of Port Terminals (ABTP), Jesualdo Silva, there is a possibility of the bill being approved this year. In addition to him, the debate was attended by the president of the Instituto Brasil Logística (IBL), Ricardo Molitzas, the president of the Board of Directors of SCPar, Marcelo Werner Salles, the president of the Board of Directors of Portos RS, Jacqueline Wendpap, and the lawyer and member of Ceportos, James Winter. The moderator was the CEO of Rede BE News, Leopoldo Figueiredo.

The chairman of the Board of Directors of SCPar, Marcelo Werner Salles, believes that looking at ports in other countries is important at this time. “Looking at Anglo-Saxon ports, where the law itself is different, is very different from everything that we have as a characteristic”.

SPECIAL COMMISSION

During the panel, the importance of creating a Special Committee was also discussed. According to the president of the IBL, Ricardo Molitzas, the expectation is that “it will be created as soon as possible. The project was filed on February 28. And the creation of this committee has been expected for two months.” He also states that once created, it will have 40 sessions.

“We have been working through the IBL, including talking to parliamentarians, making recommendations to leaders for participation, that is, a preparatory conversation for the composition of this special committee that will probably carry out this analysis. So we do expect it to be created,” says Molitzas.

The president of the Board of Directors of Portos RS, Jacqueline Wendpap, does not anticipate any predictions, but she believes that the text presented to the committee is expected to prevail. “It is a text that takes the country into account. As we bring about modernization in these (labor) relations, an appreciation of training, of the workforce in the port sector, serious and effective training, which is not what we see today, not because of the responsibility of the Navy or the agencies, but because of the system itself,” she pointed out.

Lawyer and committee member James Winter emphasized that the project was created in a didactic manner, but based on several studies, concepts, principles and guidelines. “In each article, in each paragraph, you have a justification to expand, to base that concept and to make it plausible in practice, because sometimes we think and many things remain dead in the law, and we took this care”, explains the lawyer.

COMMISSION OF LEGALISTS

Before the panel, there was a lecture with the general rapporteur of the Commission of Jurists for the Legal Review of the Exploration of Ports and Port Facilities (Ceportos), judge Celso Peel.

During the chat, he explained the context of the creation of the preliminary draft on the new legal framework and highlighted that the group held several public hearings with representatives of workers and companies in the sector.

According to the judge, the committee of jurists does not have the power to negotiate with the parties involved. The committee's job is to listen to the demands, analyze the contributions and consolidate a technical text.

“Our mandate is to present a preliminary draft based on the expertise of its members. This is very important to understand, because we have heard countless public hearings with the workers’ union in the committee and, sometimes, their demands were not met, but we were not there to negotiate.”

Judge Celso Peel. Photo: Neitor Corrêa