(JancisRobinson) - Conflicts between Brazil’s largest wine producers and wine importers have come to a head, as Paul Medder, Wine Intelligence’s man in Brazil, reports. Despite the positive headlines recently about Brazil becoming the sixth largest economy in the world and regular reports noting the importance of the BRICs in the expansion of the global wine market, foreign wine producers seeking to export to Brazil market face an uncertain few months. Last Thursday 15 March the Brazilian Ministry for Development Industry and Trade (MDIC) publicly opened a consultation about the possibility of introducing ‘safeguarding’ measures to protect national wine production from the waves of imported wine ‘attacking the Brazilian market’ (Diário Oficial da União, Circular n° 9/2012, 15 março 2012, pp76-79).