Politics: Brazil asserts new independence in trade relations

On the occasion of Brazil’s Independence Day on Sept. 7, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim announced a “strategic alliance” with France. The two countries formalized agreements for Brazil to buy five submarines from France – including Latin America’s first nuclear-powered submarine – and 50 French EC-725 transport helicopters, and announced that they would begin negotiating a deal for Brazil to purchase 36 Rafale combat jets made by French firm Dassault Aviation.

Brazil is interested in closer ties with “a technological power that can assume, and live up to, technology-sharing commitments,” said Amorim. He was referring to a key factor in the decision by the government of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to acquire the military equipment from France, rather than other contenders like companies from the United States, Sweden or Germany.

With regard to Brazil’s coalition with India and South Africa in the IBSA Dialogue Forum, the foreign minister described it as an “innovative” initiative because it breaks with “the traditional foreign policy paradigm” of developing countries, based on alliances only with neighbours and, outside of the region, only with rich countries.

The IBSA Forum, launched in 2003 after President Lula took office, brings together “three multicultural democracies that are proud of their multiculturalism,” and are major markets and regional leaders, said Amorim.
Since then, three summits of IBSA leaders have been held – after four decades during which Brazil was not visited by any head of government from India, he pointed out.

Besides strengthening economic relations, IBSA has fostered common positions vis-à-vis international bodies, “combining” the views of leaders from different continents, he said.

The three countries have also created development cooperation mechanisms that benefit extremely poor countries like Haiti, Guinea Bissau, Burundi, East Timor, Laos and the Palestinian territories, which were also selected as beneficiaries because of past or ongoing armed strife.

The IBSA Fund for Poverty Alleviation “is proof that it is not necessary to be rich to show solidarity,” said Amorim, who added that it could serve as an example for the industrialised world.

Brazil is emerging as a global actor, as seen by its participation in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations and as a member of the Group of 20 (G20) major industrialised and emerging nations, which has taken on a leading role in discussions on how to overcome the global financial crisis.

The G20 is more effective than the Group of 7 (G7) richest countries because of its “diversification and greater representativeness,” and “the poor are heard” in its decision-making process, said the minister, who added that Brazil gives a voice to the views of other Latin American countries, as well as African nations, in the G20.

The G20 is “the best format, and will become a fixture,” because it reflects the “dynamism” of emerging economies in contrast to the recession in the industrialised world, he said.

Brazil’s role in the world is that of a peaceful country that seeks negotiated solutions. The submarines and fighter planes that the country plans to acquire are aimed at strengthening the country’s “dissuasive force and active defence” capacity, necessary for a country with riches like the Amazon jungle and the huge deep-sea oilfields off the country’s Atlantic coast that were recently discovered under a thick layer of salt, he said.

The minister said he was not worried about Brazil setting off an arms race in Latin America, because “this country does not feel threatened by, and is not threatening, anyone.”

The Lula administration’s recent criticism of the increased U.S. military presence in Colombia, which will give the U.S. armed forces access to seven bases, did not question the agreements between the two countries, but was calling for “transparency and effective guarantees,” he added.

Amorim also clarified that the agreement for the purchase of the French combat jets has not yet been negotiated. France offered “favourable technological conditions,” he said, referring to the transfer of technology, which in the case of the U.S. is not guaranteed, based on past experiences. But the price offered by the French “leaves something to be desired,” and Brazil is hoping France makes good on a “promise to offer a more competitive price,” he said.

With regard to trade reprisals against the U.S. authorised by a WTO ruling because of U.S. cotton subsidies, he said the government is studying how to retaliate against “products, services or other forms of economic interests” that would be most likely to pressure the U.S. to eliminate the subsidies for cotton growers.

In late August, the WTO set conditions as to how Brazil can retaliate against the U.S. over the cotton subsidies, several years after Brazil complained about the trade-distorting subsidies, which have an extremely damaging effect, especially for millions of poor cotton farmers in Africa.

On the question of climate change, Amorim announced that Brazil would go to the world conference in Copenhagen in December with a “cutting-edge position,” involving commitments for a major reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

He said the government would also accept the inclusion of the reduction of deforestation among its mitigation efforts, but in a way that effectively cuts greenhouse gases, and not one that allows “rich countries to buy the right to continue polluting.”