Alexandre Rocha*
São Paulo – The new Kuwaiti ambassador to Brasília, Waleed Al-Kandari, intends to prioritize the simplification of trade between his country and Brazil during his term of office heading the embassy. He landed in the Brazilian capital in September and yesterday (16) gave an exclusive interview to ANBA. "There is a new line of government in Kuwait, which consists in opening the country to the world, opening the market and receiving more investment and foreign companies,” he said.
In this sense, the diplomat wants to start negotiating economic agreements with Brazil right away. "The last agreement signed between both countries was in 1975. We must sign others that are advantageous to both countries, like, for example, an investment protection treaty and another to avoid dual taxation,” he said.
To the ambassador, trade between Brazil and Kuwait has significant space for growth. Brazilian exports to the Arab country generated US$ 91 million between January and September this year, being the main products shipped chicken, cattle beef, bulldozers and other vehicles, and shoes. Imports, in turn, totalled just US$ 550,500 and the main products in the trade basket were polyethylene, aluminium residues and fibreglass.
"We are going to work hard on improving relations in different areas,” stated Al-Kandari. "Nowadays, all around the world one of the most important fields in diplomatic corps is economic diplomacy,” he added.
He believes that some impulses to bilateral trade should take place in the near future, among them a trade delegation of businessmen from Santa Catarina to visit three countries in the Gulf, including Kuwait, at the end of the month. "I was grateful for having arrived in Brazil just before this delegation left,” he declared.
Another impulse may come from negotiations between the Mercosur, the economic bloc that includes Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) for a free trade agreement. In the last meeting, which took place last week in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, it was decided that both parties are going to work to include all bilateral trade in the treaty. The GCC is an economic bloc that includes Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman.
Before arriving in Brazil, Al-Kandari was the first Kuwaiti ambassador in Uzbekistan. He entered the diplomatic corps in 1994 and has also worked at the country’s embassies in Madrid, Bahrain and Brussels. The ambassador studied in the United States and is graduated in political science with a post-graduate course in marketing.
The country
Located in the Arabian Peninsula, Kuwait is a small country that has great economic power, as it has 10% of the proven global oil reserves. According to the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, the Kuwaiti Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is US$ 72.5 billion (2005) for a population of 2.9 million inhabitants.
Apart from oil, important sectors in the country are construction, transport and the textile industry. Kuwait is a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
*Translated by Mark Ament
