China, Brazil to expand 2-way trade ties as several agreements reached
CHINESE President Xi Jinping said yesterday China is fully confident in China-Brazil cooperation and stands ready to achieve common prosperity with Brazil.
China is willing to share development experience and gains with Brazil, so as to achieve common prosperity, Xi said during his talks with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
Bolsonaro and Xi praised strong bilateral relations between their countries and signaled a desire to expand two-way trade in a brief public ceremony in Brasilia.
“We want to more than expand, we want to diversify our trade relationship,” Bolsonaro said.
He received Xi at the foreign relations ministry with smiles and handshakes, and the two signed a handful of memoranda.
“China is an ever greater part of Brazil’s future,” Bolsonaro said in a speech after the two leaders met, adding his government will devote due care, respect and consideration to China.
In August, amid Western criticism of Brazil’s handling of fires raging in the Amazon, China defended Brazil’s sovereignty over the region. Bolsonaro yesterday described China’s support as “a grand gesture that strengthened us a lot.”
Xi said China intends to increase trade and investment, and will eye opportunities for cooperation in areas including agriculture, electricity, oil, and infrastructure.
“China is willing to work together with Brazil to promote exchange based on equality and mutual trust,” Xi said.
China and Brazil announced a list of agreements including an accord to allow the transfer of convicted prisoners between the two countries to serve their sentences, protocols to allow an expansion of the fruit trade and broad memorandums of understanding to cooperate on transportation, investment and the service sector.
China is Brazil’s biggest trading partner. Brazil, Latin America’s largest economy, shipped soybeans, iron ore and crude to satisfy China’s demand. Those three products account for more than 80 percent of Brazil’s exports to China.
Bolsonaro said his government wants to diversify exports to China, and welcomed a signal from China’s government that it wants to help Brazil add value to output.
Confirmed Chinese investments in Brazil between 2007 and 2018 totaled almost US$60 billion, more than any other Latin American country, according to the Brazil-China Business Council, a Brazilian research center.
Xi is in Brasilia for the 11th BRICS summit from November 13 and 14. He is scheduled to attend the closing ceremony of the BRICS business forum, the BRICS leaders’ closed-door session and open meeting and the BRICS leaders’ dialogue with the BRICS Business Council and the New Development Bank.
This is his first to Brazil since 2014.
The five leaders will focus on stimulating investment in their countries amid a slowing world economy, while patching up disagreements on issues such as Venezuela and Bolivia, diplomats said.
China has authorized exports from 45 Brazilian meat plants, helped by visits earlier in the year by Vice President Hamilton Mourao and Agriculture Minister Tereza Cristina Dias.
Chinese state oil companies CNOOC and CNODC were bidders in a massive oil auction last week, following an invitation made by Bolsonaro during his visit.
Senior Chinese officials told reporters last week they hope the summit will help “inject confidence into a worried international community” and “uphold multilateralism in the face of unprecedented challenges and rising protectionism.”
Xi met with Bolsonaro in October when the Brazilian president paid his first state visit to China. During the visit, they witnessed the signing of a series of bilateral agreements and the two sides agreed to develop relations from a strategic height and long-term perspective.
(Agencies)