BRAZIL-US: Obama Promises 'Equal Partnership'

• by Fabiana Frayssinet (rio de janeiro)
• Thursday, March 17, 2011
• Inter Press Service

Language is the first thing to change, and according to Clovis Brigagao, head of the Centre for Studies on the Americas, the terms used in the United States' references to Brazil have already begun to change, before the first official meeting has taken place between Obama and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, in power for less than three months.

'Relations between the United States and Brazil, in any area, must be between equals and the scope of these relations is global,' Thomas Shannon, U.S. ambassador to Brasilia, told local magazine Isto E.

Brigagao told IPS the pragmatic basis for the change of language is set out in a fact sheet on the U.S.-Brazil Economic Relationship, issued by the White House ahead of Obama's Mar. 19-20 visit to Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro, before he goes on to Chile and El Salvador.

'The two largest economies and the two largest democracies in the Western hemisphere share one of the most important trade and economic relationships in the world. Brazil is our 10th largest trading partner,' the White House document says.

'Brazil is an emerging global player and economic powerhouse. With a 2010 GDP of more than two trillion dollars, Brazil is the seventh largest economy in the world and accounts for nearly 60 percent of South America’s total GDP,' the fact sheet says.

'Brazil's Central Bank is concerned that the country is growing too fast,' said Charles Shapiro, a senior coordinator of economic initiatives in Latin America for the U.S. State Department. 'It's a problem all of us would like to have,' he said.

Marcos Azambuja, deputy head of the Brazilian Centre for International Relations, told IPS Obama 'knows how to sell himself well,' and will no doubt make the most of the widespread interest in his visit, to meet his domestic goals.

Obama needs to show the U.S. electorate, which is cooling towards him, that he is capable of securing important agreements to shore up a weakened U.S. economy, and that he is popular in a country like Brazil, where half the population is black and Obama will be 'welcomed naturally and affectionately,' Azambuja said.

In Rio, Obama's activities will be unusual by the standard of his foreign visits. He will deliver a speech 'to the people of Brazil' from a central city square that will be open to the public, the U.S. embassy said. He will also visit a 'favela' or shanty town and the famous statue of Christ the Redeemer, the city's iconic landmark.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota said: 'We are in a position to renew the relationship with the United States and raise it to a level of greater interaction, of cooperation for mutual benefit, that is multipolar in nature, based on the pursuit of development and global solutions.'

The cooperation he referred to is linked to strategic sectors.

The social and political upheaval in the Arab world means it is vital for the United States to secure reliable sources of oil supply, for example.

Brazil's discovery of new deepwater oil reserves that could make it one of the world's leading oil exporters has raised interest among U.S. companies keen on participating in its development, after Chinese firms got there ahead of them.

Another point of interest is investment in logistics, services, security and infrastructure with a view to the World Cup football tournament in 2014 and the Olympic Games in 2016, to be hosted by Brazil.

Deals in the space industry are also a possibility. Negotiations in the past were blocked by U.S. refusal to transfer technology, but now Brazil hopes to overcome objections, with projects like satellite launches from its base in Alcántara, in the north of the country.

Brigagao said another item of common interest was the sale of fighter planes to the Brazilian air force. The government of former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-January 2011) made a deal with France, but now there are indications Rousseff could change her mind and 'Obama will no doubt lobby' for the deal to take place, he said.

Tullo Vigévani of São Paulo State University told IPS the new relationship between Brasilia and Washington would be 'not one of submission.' 'Obama knows that Brazil is an eminently autonomous country,' he said.

However, he said he had reservations about a visit with such an apparently 'routine' agenda. In Vigévani's view, evidence for a real change in bilateral relations would be if, for example, Obama gave explicit support to Brazil's aspiration to a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, as he has done for Japan and India.

But Azambuja was not optimistic. 'It would be a pleasant surprise, but I don't see it happening in the short-term.'

Another move that would help bring about a shift in the historic relations between the two countries would be for the United States to eliminate protectionist barriers on farming products, like orange juice, beef, tobacco and ethanol, a biofuel made from sugarcane.

The trade barriers, together with the U.S. economic crisis and the sharp appreciation of the real against the dollar, have led to a Brazilian trade deficit with the United States of 7.8 billion dollars in 2010.

Azambuja said 'the problems between Brazil and the United States can be solved by presidential diplomacy.'

Obama will spend 12 hours in Brasilia, where he and Rousseff will hold a formal meeting with their advisers, and a private meeting at which the moderate left-wing Brazilian leader will seek to put diplomatic frictions aside and extract some explicit support from her guest for Brazil's National Security Council bid.

Brigagao gave further reasons why it makes sense for Brazil to be the first country Obama will visit in South America. In addition to being the region's powerhouse, 'it is part of the new international agenda of emerging powers,' he said.

As such, 'it participates actively in groups like the G20 (bloc of major industrial and emerging powers) and BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China), it is seeking a permanent seat on the Security Council, and it has a hand in touchy global issues like the nuclear question in Iran.'

In 2010, relations between Obama and then-president Lula cooled off when Brazil and Turkey mediated an attempt to avoid sanctions against Iran because of its nuclear programme. Before that there was friction over their different positions on the coup that overthrew Honduran president Manuel Zelaya in June 2009.

But Brigagao said both governments want to turn the page. Compared to governments like Venezuela's, with its 'hardline nationalism,' Brazil is seen by Washington as 'a kind of moderate anchor' that it will try to capitalise on, he said.

© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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