Brazil’s Lula Vows to Keep on Diversifying International Relations

In a meeting Wednesday, January 4, with Brazilian diplomats (among them more than 60 ambassadors) President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva presented a balance sheet on the government’s international relations in 2005, with special emphasis on trade, declaring that the country will continue to seek to intensify and diversify those relations.

According to Foreign Minister, Celso Amorim, although Lula’s foreign travels have been criticized by some, "The fact is that they have brought a lot of dollars and euros back to Brazil. Ten percent of our trade surplus, omitting petroleum purchases, now comes from Arab and African nations. And Latin American is becoming our principal trade partner."

Amorim explained that the Lula government has made those areas priorities in its foreign policy.

Brazilian exports in 2005 reached a record US$ 118.3 billion, with increased sales in all regions of the world. The highlights were in "non-traditional" areas, such as Eastern Europe (where Brazilian exports rose 55.8%), Africa (up 41.4%), South America -excluding Mercosur – (up 27.5%) and Asia (up 16.7%).

Amorim pointed out that even with the emphasis on new markets, exports to traditional trade partners in Europe and the US had also risen to record levels.

Exports to the EU rose over 10% to US$ 26.5 billion, and to the US were up 12.2% to US$ 22.7 billion, at the same time that imports by Brazil from those areas also increased sharply.

Agência Brasil

Tags:

You May Also Like

Hundreds of Desperate Haitians Have Been Entering Brazil Illegally

Haitians have been entering Brazil illegally from Bolivia and Peru. Somehow they are traveling ...

January 1994

CONTENTS: Cover: The Northeast is dying of thirst (p. 7) (President) Lula talks (p. ...

Brazil Caudillismo: A State Where Everything Is Named After Senator Sarney

Following a series of scandals that took Brazil’s Senate President, José Sarney, to the ...

Invasion of Brazilian Congress Caused US$ 45,000 in Damages

It is estimated that the damage caused by the members of the Movement for ...

Pluto, expelled from the planet's club

Brazilian Government Pays to Bring Pluto Back to the Cool Planets Table

It has just been created, in Brasília, a new NGO, called Friends of Pluto ...

A Crisis of Low Self-Esteem in Brazil

Brazilians have the lowest self-esteem in Latin America. Only 22 percent of Brazilians say ...

In Brazil, Banks Lead with US$ 10 Billion in Profits in First Half

Total profits of the four main sectors represented by Brazil's Bovespa (São Paulo Stock ...

Brazil Is Bleeding Money and Ideas

Anyone can see now that Brazil’s Workers’ Party (PT) administration had no alternatives, never ...

Slave Labor Is Not Worse, Just More Visible, Says Brazil

At a hearing on slave labor this week in the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies, ...

Dictatorship-Era Law Regulating Journalists in Brazil to Be Challenged

Reporters Without Borders is to challenge a ruling by Brazil’s Superior Court of Justice ...