Brazil’s trade surplus with its Mercosur partners (Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay) in 2004 was the highest since the creation of the bloc in 1991. Brazil exported US$ 8.91 billion and imported US$ 6.39 billion, yielding a surplus of US$ 2.51 billion.
In 2003, the balance generated a US$ 12.9 million deficit for Brazil in its commercial relations with its southern neighbors.
Brazil’s surplus in Mercosur trade represented 7% of the country’s overall trade surplus of US$ 33.69 billion in 2004.
Within the Mercosur Argentina was the country with which Brazil’s trade produced the highest surplus, US$ 1.8 billion (US$ 7.37 in exports versus US$ 5.57 in imports), equivalent to 71.4% of Brazil’s total trade surplus with the rest of the block.
Business with Paraguay resulted in a trade surplus of US$ 574.01 million (US$ 871.84 million in exports versus US$ 297.82 million in imports), equivalent to 22.8% of Brazil’s total trade surplus with the rest of the block.
For its part, trade with Uruguay generated a surplus of US$ 144.17 million (US$ 667.04 million in exports versus US$ 522.86 million in imports), equivalent to 5.8% of Brazil’s overall Mercosur trade surplus.
For the Brazilian director of the Mercosur Secretariat, Reginaldo Braga Arcuri, although the other countries had significant shares, the volume of Brazil’s commercial transactions in the Mercosur is particularly impressive, especially when it comes to the positive trade balance.
“This, however, is a reasonably natural state of affairs, since Brazil is, in fact, responsible for, let us say, around 70% of the region’s economy,” Arcuri observes.
Translation: David Silberstein
Agência Brasil