Brazil hopes to augment its trade with China to US$ 10 billion in 2005. The product diversification strategy adopted in recent years caused this trade to grow from US$ 1.5 billion in 2000 to US$ 7 billion through September of this year.
But this is still very little, considering that Brazil’s sales to China represent less than 1% of what the world’s fastest growing country imports.
“In the case of China, unlike what happened with Japan, Brazil has been able to export products containing high added value,” says the director of the Trade Promotion Department of the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Relations, Ambassador Mário Vilalva.
Besides soybeans, which represent 29% of what the country sells to China, Brazil’s exports include steel, orange juice, auto parts, airplane parts, and lumber.
The effort to promote trade between Brazil and China encompasses an intensive program of visits, such as the one to Brazil this week by Chinese officials and entrepreneurs, six months after Brazil’s largest entrepreneurial mission of all time accompanied President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on his trip to China.
During the visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao to Brazil, from November 11-16, over 500 Brazilian and Chinese businessmen will be exchanging information and, possibly, concluding deals.
Tomorrow, November 12, in Brasília, they will participate in the seminar, “Brazil-China: Victories and Challenges in the Construction of a Strategic Partnership.”
From October 29 to November 7, the Chinese enjoyed the opportunity to taste typical Brazilian culinary specialties at the Brazilian Gastronomical Festival.
Those who liked what they tasted received recipes in Mandarin. Between October 8 and November 10, thanks to a contract with the Sugar, Cigarette & Wine Group, China’s second largest wholesale outfit, Brazil distributed 800 items, produced by 58 companies, to 1,156 Chinese supermarkets and shops.
Agência Brasil
Translator: David Silberstein