{"id":370051,"date":"2024-07-12T11:19:51","date_gmt":"2024-07-12T14:19:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/?p=370051"},"modified":"2024-07-12T11:20:44","modified_gmt":"2024-07-12T14:20:44","slug":"mercosur-palestine-free-trade-agreement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/mercosur-palestine-free-trade-agreement\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercosur-Palestine Free Trade Agreement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Alessandro Candeas*<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brazil has ratified the Free Trade Agreement between Mercosur and the State of Palestine on July 5 in Asunci\u00f3n. According to a statement from Brazil\u2019s Foreign Ministry<\/a>, the entry into force of the agreement first signed in 2011 is an act of trust in the economic viability of the Palestinian state and a desire to strengthen this relationship. This article presents brief information on the bilateral trade and its potential for growth and diversification, based on data from the Comexstat system of the Ministry of Development, Industry, Trade and Services of Brazil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2023, exports from Brazil to Palestine grossed USD 32,214,955, the second-best result in history. Imports, however, reached only USD 194,885. A surplus at over USD 32 million and an overwhelming presence of 99.4% of Brazilian exports show a structural imbalance of a one-way relationship. It would be only fair to bridge such gap, however slightly, by means of stepping up purchases of Palestinian goods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trade last year focused on very few products. Leading exports from Brazil were fresh beef, chilled or frozen (USD 29 million), and prepared or preserved meat offal (USD 1.44 million), adding up to 95% of the volume. From Palestine, fruit, preserved, and fruits preparations (except fruit juices) were virtually the only item (99.2%) exported in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Palestine is a market of roughly 6 million consumers (if we include the West Bank and Gaza). In 2023 Mato Grosso was Brazil\u2019s leading exporting state to Palestine, followed by S\u00e3o Paulo, Goi\u00e1s, Rond\u00f4nia, Minas Gerais, Tocantins, Mato Grosso do Sul, and Rio Grande do Sul \u2013 all major meat exporters. In turn, Rond\u00f4nia is by far the top importing state of Palestinian goods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Palestine has sought to diversify its international trade partnerships, and Brazil is a key priority. For this purpose, multisectoral business missions were led to S\u00e3o Paulo in in 2023 and 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is worth noting that 2024\u2019s bilateral trade statistics indicate an interesting development in exports. This year\u2019s first half saw the trade exchange reach USD 17.1 million \u2013 with Brazil exporting USD 16.9 million and importing USD 0.2 million \u2013 thus allowing to envision a slightly higher result compared to 2023\u2019s, with a small decrease in Brazil\u2019s otherwise sky-high surplus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a surprising result \u2013 as it shows the trade exchange hasn\u2019t been affected by the economic crisis plaguing Palestine in the context of the war in Gaza and its reverberations in the West Bank \u2013 and has potential for growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also surprising, if not counterintuitive, is a change in the Palestinian export profile. In 2024 61% of Palestinian exports are manufactured and capital goods \u2013 centrifuges, air compressors, fans, pumps, exhaust fans, filtering or purifying machinery and their apparatus. The item \u201cfruits\u201d, which dominated exports in 2023, accounts for 37% of the total volume.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, there is great potential for expanding Brazil-Palestine trade, regardless of the political and economic turmoil that has unfortunately affected the region. Bilateral trade reached a record high at USD 47 million in 2015. In 2021, in the middle of an economic slump ushered in by Covid and another conflict in Gaza, trade reached USD 26.1 million. As we\u2019ve seen, this year could post the second highest trade volume in history \u2013 despite the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are good exporting prospects for Palestine in ceramics, textiles, crafts, olive oil, and stones for construction and decoration, as well as manufactured and capital goods. From the Brazilian side, there is also potential to increase sales of food items \u2013 coffee, sugar, fruits \u2013 machinery, footwear and clothing, and miscellaneous services. Brazilian investments in manufacturing Palestinian products at competitive prices to neighboring Israel and Arab countries could also be on the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Alessandro Candeas is the Brazilian ambassador to Palestine<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The views expressed in this article are those of the author.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated by Guilherme Miranda<\/strong><\/p>\n

Supplied<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the wake of Brazil\u2019s ratification of Mercosur\u2019s free trade agreement with Palestine, Ambassador Alessandro Candeas analyzes in an article the commerce between the two countries and potential prospects, suggesting that Brazil could buy more Palestinian goods to balance out trade. This year\u2019s result is a surprise given the crisis that has plagued Palestine in the context of war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2337,"featured_media":370047,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20687],"tags":[19865,9534,9561,50097,31497,2263,9897,50147,50146,4972],"class_list":{"0":"post-370051","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-articles","8":"tag-alessandro-candeas-en","9":"tag-brazil-en","10":"tag-exports-en","11":"tag-free-trade-agreement-2","12":"tag-gaza-en-2","13":"tag-international-trade","14":"tag-palestine-en","15":"tag-palestine-mercosur-agreement","16":"tag-palestine-mercosur-free-trade-agreement","17":"tag-west-bank"},"wps_subtitle":"In the wake of Brazil\u2019s ratification of Mercosur\u2019s free trade agreement with Palestine, Ambassador Alessandro Candeas analyzes in an article the commerce between the two countries and potential prospects, suggesting that Brazil could buy more Palestinian goods to balance out trade. This year\u2019s result is a surprise given the crisis that has plagued Palestine in the context of war.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2337"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}