São Paulo – With a surplus of US$ 24.7 billion in 2008, Brazilian foreign trade was responsible for the generation of 1.2 million jobs in the country. The figure was calculated by the Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo (Fiesp) in a survey reviewing the impact of international trade on job generation.
According to the survey, whose method is based on national accounts calculated by the Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics (IBGE), exports from Brazil to its leading trade partners ensured the generation of 5.6 million formal and informal jobs last year. However, 4.4 million jobs were “exported” by means of foreign purchases.
Out of the countries and economic blocs surveyed, only China had a negative contribution, at 303,000 positions, to the positive result of 1.2 million jobs generated with foreign trade. Exchanges with China, which had a negative participation of 15% in the Brazilian trade surplus, answered to the creation of 611,000 jobs and the loss of 914,000 jobs as a consequence of imports.
“China sells more value-added products (consumer goods), and Brazil exports more natural resources. Our sales to the Chinese are not too diversified,” explains the manager of the Department of Economic Research and Studies (Depecon) at the Fiesp, André Rebelo.
Brazilian exports to the European Union generated nearly 700,000 jobs in the country. Exchanges with the United States accounted for the creation of 167,000 jobs, with the Mercosur, 212,000, and with the remainder of Latin America, 430,000. Of the partners selected, Brazil only runs a trade deficit with China – approximately US$ 3.6 billion in 2008.
The five sectors that sell the most products to China concentrate 88% of the export basket. Among them, soy grain (38.7%) and iron ore (35.5%). Imports, in turn, are more diversified: the five leading segments answer to 48% of the basket. Topping the list, organic chemicals and electronic materials.
Imports of consumer goods from China were responsible for the highest negative balance of jobs (291,000 positions). The highest surplus was that of raw material trade with the Asian country – 366,000 jobs (77%). According to the survey, despite the high export figures to China, few jobs are created: in sales of raw materials, for every million dollars in exports, an average of 29.6 jobs are created. In purchases of consumer goods, for every million dollars in imports, an average of 74.5 jobs are lost, mostly in the clothing, textiles, leather and shoes, rubber and plastic, and furniture sectors.
In five years, the surplus of jobs in Brazil-China trade decreased by 326%. In 2003, commercial exchange between the countries generated a surplus of 134,000 positions. In 2006, the scenario suffered an inversion: there was loss of 58,000 jobs, a figure that increased in 2007 (-183,000) and in 2008 (-303,000).
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
