Welber Barral Speaks to American Business Interests: Convergence and Divergence of U.S. Brazil Economic Trade

Welber Barral, the very successful Foreign Trade Secretary (Ministry of Development, Industry, and Foreign Trade) of Brazil, has come to the United States to reassure Americans that the business climate for American investment is still favorable in Brazil.  On April 13, 2010, at the offices of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Dr. Barral will participate in a roundtable organized by the Brazil-U.S. Business Council.  A Forum Brasil Roundtable Discussion on Brazilian Foreign Trade Policies. Dr. Barral will discuss the Brazil-U.S. bilateral relation, as well as possible areas of cooperation between the United States and Brazil to increase trade between both countries, including plans for new projects in the area of innovation. Dr. Barral will also engage in a limited stakeholder consultation of sorts, providing interested companies with an opportunity to offer their views on steps that can be taken to improve the business environment in Brazil.

Established in 1976, the Brazil-U.S. Business Council was created to foster understanding and advance business priorities between the U.S. and Brazil. The U.S. Section of the Council represents the majority of the largest U.S. corporations invested in Brazil and works collaboratively with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The Brazil Section of the Council is managed by the Brazilian National Confederation of Industry, based in Brasília.
The Brazil-U.S. Business Council is a private sector organization focused on promoting the free flow of trade and investment between Brazil and the United States. In the pursuit of this goal, our bilateral nature makes us uniquely effective. With a U.S. Section representing the largest U.S. investors in Brazil and a Brazil Section managed from Brazil, the Council has the ability to forge consensus between the two private sectors and communicate it to both governments in a bilateral context.

Brazil-U.S. Business Council,  Welcome to the Brazil- U.S. Business Council. 

• To serve as an advocate in the United States and Brazil for council members' interests in advancing trade and investment.
• To promote substantive interaction between council members and leading policymakers in Brazil and the United States.
• To deliver timely information to members and to facilitate member input into policy formulation and program development.
• To advance the policy priorities of the Brazil Council member companies through member-driven task forces and joint programs with other government and private sector stakeholders.

Brazil-U.S. Business Council, Mission and Objectives.

This is a visit, and an exchange, long overdue.  Dr. Barral has been one of a team of Brazilians who have managed to steer Brazil clear of most of the economic excesses that have  bedeviled the United  States.  He has also helped create an architecture of foreign and economic policy in which Brazil has effectively begun to follow its own interests, even when they diverge form those of the United States.  For a peek at his views, consider, Welber Barral, Vídeo de Welber Barral: Brasil Recupera Exportações para América Latina. Leia mais: http://www.politicaexterna.com/archives/9489#ixzz0kknD0GCM.


Still, Dr. Barral has understood the importance of economic connection, even as political objectives diverge.

O mercado globalizado age sob efeito dominó. Quando uma primeira peça cai em direção ao chão, as demais passam a cair seguidamente. A economia segue o mesmo preceito: quando uma nação economicamente importante vai mal, as demais começam a reagir paralelamente.

Por isso, o Brasil, assim como outros países do globo, torcem para que os Estados Unidos se recuperem. Welber Barral, secretário de Comércio Exterior do Ministério do Desenvolvimento, Indústria e Comércio Exterior assegurou que o Brasil pretende exportar US$ 18 bilhões a mais em 2010 em relação aos US$ 150 bilhões deste ano.

Barral crê, conforme reportagem da Agência Estado, que a velocidade de recuperação da economia internacional ditará o volume das vendas externas. No entanto, a valorização do real diante do dólar é um dos fatores determinantes, mas não o único, visto que a acumulação de créditos tributários neste segmento, por empresários, é mais importante que o próprio câmbio.

Luiz Felipe T. Erdei,  Welber Barral afirma que Brasil exportará quase US$ 170 bi no próximo ano, Salario Minimo, Dec. 8, 2009.  And Dr. Barral has for some time been sensitive to US Brazil trade issues:

O Secretário de Comércio do Ministério do Desenvolvimento, Indústria e Comércio Exterior (MDIC), Welber Barral, está em Washington, nesta sexta-feira (4/12), para participar do XXVII Encontro sobre Parceria Estratégica entre o Brasil e os Estados Unidos. Representantes norte-americanos do governo e da iniciativa privada também participam do evento.

Para o secretário, as trocas comerciais com os EUA são muito importantes devido às características das exportações brasileiras para aquele país. “O comércio entre esses dois países é marcado por trocas intrafirmas, o que garante que nossas exportações sejam majoritariamente de bens industrializados”, disse.

Em entrevista coletiva realizada no dia 1º de dezembro, para comentar os números da balança comercial brasileira de novembro deste ano, Barral disse que os Estados Unidos são prioridade para o Brasil em 2010. “A crise mundial afetou a economia global e com isso registramos queda no intercâmbio com diversos países. Mas eu espero que no próximo ano possamos voltar às negociações e ver a retomada do crescimento econômico nessas regiões”, destacou. 

Ministério do Desenvolvimento, Indústria e Comércio Exterior, Welber Barral participa de encontro sobre Parceria Estratégica entre o Brasil e os Estados Unidos,  04/12/2009.  Dr. Barral has also been involved in Brazil's version of a "Go Global" policy. See, Ministério do Desenvolvimento, Indústria e Comércio ExteriorSecex discute internacionalização de empresas com Codesul, 29/03/2010 (O Seminário vai reunir representantes de órgãos públicos, da iniciativa privada e especialistas da área acadêmica. Entre as principais questões em pauta, está a divulgação de ações governamentais voltadas para a internacionalização de empresas brasileiras).  There is as much at stake for Brazilian business as there might be for American interest in the development of bilateral economic relations on a sounder footing. The consequences of a failure are already becoming apparent.  "Brazilian exports to the US fell by 42 percent in 2009, to US$15.7 billion, with China replacing the US as Brazil’s top export market, with US$19.9 billion of exports, or more than 13 percent of all Brazil’s exports, according to figures released by the Ministry of Trade last week."  Mark Beresford, China Over U.S. in Brazilian Exports, The Rio Times, Jan. 12, 2010.

However, the US remains the leading importer into Brazil, and Brazil’s number one trade partner, with imports and exports of US$35.9 billion, down from US$53.4 billion in 2008, but only a whisker ahead of China, which had total trade with Brazil of US$35.8 billion in 2009. US exports to Brazil were US$20.2 billion, ahead of Chinese exports of US$15.9 billion. In 2009, Brazil posted a US$4.5 billion trade deficit with the US, its first deficit since 1999.
“We have to strengthen our actions to retake the US market,” Trade Secretary Welber Barral said, “we export a lot of manufactured products to the US, and we are only going to manage to increase our industrial exports if we are able to win back our sales in such major markets as the US and Latin America.” 

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