São Paulo – The Foreign Minister of Brazil, Celso Amorim, defended the continuation of the foreign policy of Brazil, no matter who wins the election for president of Brazil, in October. “My conviction is that the foreign policy should not be changed,” said the minister, on Friday (13) evening, before a dinner in his honour offered by the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, in São Paulo.
“Even people with lower sensibility in the political or cultural point of view, or those who are not interested in world peace, who find we should not have got involved, are not going to abandon [the foreign policy],” said Amorim.
To him, the benefits of closer ties generated by president Luis Inácio Lula da Silva and other developing nations, mainly the Middle East and Africa, “are very obvious”. As an example he mentioned the greater trade between Brazil and the Arab world, which rose from little over US$ 5 billion in 2003, the first year president Lula was in office, to over US$ 20 billion in 2008.
“The material aspects are very strong,” he said. Amorim pointed out that, apart from exports of foods, Brazilian companies sell products with greater added value, like aircraft and land vehicles, as well as promoting industrial investment in the region. Brazil has also attracted Arab investment. “I think that the policy will be maintained. It would not be sensible to abandon it,” he added.
The foreign policy of the government of Brazil has been criticised by the main candidate to the presidency of Brazil, José Serra, former governor of the state of São Paulo. He and the candidate of the situation, Dilma Roussef (PT), formerly the Chief of Staff of the Presidency of Brazil, are the two best evaluated candidates in polls.
When asked whether he will remain as the Foreign Minister in case Roussef wins, Amorim said that “that is not important”, what is important is that the government have the face of the head of state and that the international area “is the face of the government abroad”. I believe that she (Roussef) must be at full liberty to choose her advisors,” he said. What is important is that the [political] line remain, and I believe it will,” he pointed out.
Further agreements
While Lula’s term in office remains, Amorim said that it is still possible to do more for relations with the Arabs. Currently, Brazil is in the rotating presidency of the Mercosur and Amorim believes, for example, that free trade negotiations with Jordan “may advance and be concluded”. Last week the South American bloc signed a similar treaty with Egypt, the first with an Arab country.
The foreign minister believes that a framework agreement for the start of similar negotiations with Syria may be signed up to late this year.
Regarding talks of the kind that began with Morocco and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Amorim did not make forecasts, but said that he hopes Brazil may contribute for them to advance. The GCC includes Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman.
In the case of the countries of the Gulf, the agreement jammed due to resistance of the Brazilian petrochemical industry to accept tariff reductions over the import of petrochemicals from the region. Amorim said that there is resistance on the Arab side regarding foods, especially poultry.
He pointed out, however, that a case like this “needs a little intelligence,” and motioned the case of negotiations with Egypt, which were simplified by the personal effort made by the minister of Industry and Trade of the Arab country, Rachid Mohamed Rachid.
The foreign minister pointed out, for example, that if the agreement with the GCC is not progressing in the area of goods, it may advance in the areas of services and investment. To him, negotiations like such are not like “fishing”, some times the return is simple, but other times it is necessary to cast again and again. “It requires time,” he finished off.
*Translated by Mark Ament
