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 Displacing the United States, China has become the main purchaser of Brazilian exports during the first quarter of this year which held the position undisputed for decades, according to reports in the São Paulo press based on the latest statistics.
According to the Foundation center for Foreign Trade Studies, Funcex, China leads the list of importers of Brazilian goods having increased 62.67% in value and 41.175 over the same period a year ago. This displaced the US as the main destination of Brazilian exports.
"In the worst of worlds, we're a little better," said Miguel Daoud, chief economist from Global Financial Advisor, which specializes in Chinese trade. Beijing recently announced a US$ 600 billion stimulus plan to prop the economy and domestic demand.
In the first quarter of this year China imported US$ 3.395 billion of Brazilian goods, according to the Development, Industry and Foreign Trade ministry. China concentrated 47% of all Brazilian exports to Asia and overtook Latinamerica as the block which most buys in Brazil.
Welber Barral, Foreign Trade Secretary said that "exports to Asia are increasing in spite of the crisis. Except for Japan the Asian block has a huge trade potential to be exploited."
Sectors most benefited with exports to China are commodities such as soybeans, cellulose, iron ore and oil which together they account for 76% of all Brazilian exports.
The Chinese advance happens when Brazil suffered a 19% drop in exports during the first quarter compared to 2008, and a 21.6% fall in imports , although the trade balance advanced 9% to approximately 3 billion US dollars.
Mercopress
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Brazil received a huge boost in its international image with its selection as the host of the 2016 Olympics, but it was really just the cherry on top of the overall recognition of the country's ascension to the ranks of one of the world's most important countries. Now, as it finally takes its place on the world scene, there has been a great deal of concern about what kind of image Brazil hopes to project, now that the world is really paying attention. 
The only good thing to say about the visit to Brazil of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Monday November 23, is that it was mercifully short and lasted less than 24 hours. Ahmadinejad had his picture taken being hugged by president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who gave him a warm welcome and said Iran had every right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. 
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose.
There are however many hurdles to overcome in the trade arena; primarily Brazils bi-lateral agreements with its many neighbors in South America. These agreements are primary because they impact all the nations in the neighborhood. This was made very clearly and loudly at the latest Summit of the Americas. See how the US embargo on Cuba has impacted the entire diplomatic and trade relationships throughout the Americas. Since the relationships can no longer be based upon East-West political differences given that Washington does so much trade with non-democratic regimes. US business interests refused to be held hostage to political and ideological differences. It is not Cubans or so much Americans who are against the embargo, it is US agriculture and business interests who want to the embargo removed. Now only political considerations need to be addressed. Not a small problem given Obamas reluctance to confront his right-wing critics on the subject. He will let the business community lead on this issue giving the White House cover for the coming conservative backlash to opening the door to Cuba. These 'purists' still think still think trade with China has been a mistake.
Obama cannot confront them directly on this issue, first because he has to give priority to his domestic agenda and he cannot jeopardise that agenda in the middle of an ideological fistfight over Cuba. This is a bigger battle than Iran for the White House. Nothing would give this Obama government a 'leftist' certification like normalising relations with Cuba. Once Obama's domestic agenda is accomplished he will give Latin America priority attention both for practical and electoral reasons.
Brazil would do well to prevent the corruption of these business interests with respect to foreign relations. If the foreign influence in the Brazilian economy is allowed, once again, to corrupt the political system then Brazil could find itself in the same position as the US with a trade policy based on an ideological purity making no economic sense. Brazil would do well to remember that some of its economic relationships with its neighbors are the product of past neo-colonialist policies and must be revised to accommodate present realities.