Brazilian ambassador says that social area should be the new cooperation front between Brazil and USA

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Mylena Fiori
Repórter da Agência Brasil

Brasilia – Social area should be one of the new cooperation fronts between Brazil and USA during Barack Obama government. The expectation is due to the history of Condoleezza Rice’s substitute to the position of  North American State Secretary, ex-first lady Hillary Clinton.

“She is concerned with the fight against poverty and with the promotion of social progress. This is a topic that might come to the agenda with more emphasis than it has been in the past,” considered Brazil’s ambassador to Washington, Antonio Patriota, in exclusive interview to Agência Brasil.

The ambassador affirms that there is recognition, by US Executive and Legislative powers, of the global and regional influence exerted by Brazil. This results in a wide agenda of bilateral dialogue. “We have an agenda that focuses both on bilateral aspects and regional initiatives. There are dialogues in terms of political relations on issues such as Haiti, where Brazil is with troops, and commands the UN stabilizing mission,” he adds.

As examples of topics of bilateral concern, Patriota cites the biofuel agreement memorandum and the joint initiative in promoting equality. In March last year, during the visit of the North American State Secretary, Condoleeza Rice, to Brazil, an agreement was signed establishing the creation of a group director to analyze forms of cooperation in the promotion of equality of opportunities.

Concerning regional cooperation, Patriota mentions the partnership to disseminate the use of biofuels in some Caribbean and Central American economies. In March last year, during the visit of the president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to the United States, four countries were defined to the realization of pilot projects in biofuels production: Haiti, Dominican Republic, Saint Kitts and Nevis and El Salvador. On the occasion, Lula and the president George W. Bush also pledged themselves to cooperate in the eradication of malaria in São Tomé and Principe and in the fight against malaria, tuberculosis and other diseases in Portuguese-speaking African countries, such as Angola and Mozambique.

But it was in the political field that the relations advanced the more, particularly in the second term of President Bush, considered the ambassador. “Nowadays there are specific dialogues about Africa, Middle Orient and other international issues. All this will keep existing,” emphazises.

Patriota also mentions the numbers of bilateral trade. He recalls that Brazilian exportations to the United States doubled in the last seven years – they jumped from US$ 14.2 billion in 2001 to US$ 27.4 billion in 2008. The imports, on its turn, rose from US$ 12.9 to US$ 25.6 billion. The United States are the main Brazilian trade partner. “Bilateral trade reached in 2008 the unparalleled sum of US$ 53 billion, and we still have a small superavit, and we keep being the destination of important North American investments, and more and more Brazilian companies invest in the United States, such as Petrobras, Guerdau, Odebrecht and Embraer, ” says the ambassador.

He also recalls that in 2007 a forum for dialogue on economic partnership was created, which is identifying new opportunities for partnership. “Economic-commercial relations are healthy, but of course it can always improve,” he says, citing as an example the tariff levied on Brazilian ethanol.

In global terms, Patriota believes that the election of Obama opens a possibility that new issues will be treated within UN, such as the fight against hunger and poverty, the change in the climate and the improving of peace operations. “We know that Bush’s administration was not characterized by a special valorization of multilateralism, but that Obama’s administration already enters with very clear signals that it desires to reengage in international cooperation in UN and other forums,” he considers.

The ambassador also believes in progress in the process of UN’s reform. A signal in this direction was the subject no longer is to be treated by a dedicated working group, in which it relied on consensus, and therefore not progressed, to be debated by the General Assembly, where it is sufficient two thirds for the approval of any matter.

Translated from Portuguese (for the translation, please see About page)
For the Original Text in Portuguese click here

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