Brazil Wants Portugal Help in Mercosur-EU Free Trade Agreement
Written by Carolina Pimentel
Thursday, 13 October 2005
In Porto, Portugal, today, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva asked for Portuguese help in the negotiation of a free trade agreement between the Mercosur and the European Union (EU). Lula was accompanied by the Portuguese Prime Minister, José Sócrates.
"Portugal is an important driver in the negotiations between our regional blocs and may play a role in the conclusion of our agreement," Lula affirmed at the opening of a seminar on new business opportunities between Brazilian and Portuguese entrepreneurs.
The member countries of the Mercosur and the EU are scheduled to meet at the beginning of 2006 in an effort to revive the process of negotiations over a free trade agreement.
The process has been on hold for nearly a year. At the last meeting, held in Brussels in September of this year, the blocs merely reiterated the need for a strategic relationship.
The first attempt by the two blocs to reach an agreement occurred in May, 2004. At that time, the offers placed on the table by the Mercosur and the EU were considered unsatisfactory by both sides, which pledged to go further in their mutual concessions. During his speech in the city of Porto, the Brazilian President recalled that the agreement must be "balanced" for both sides.
The Portuguese government has already expressed its interest in being a "port of entry" for the European Union, which comprises 25 countries.
The Mercosur is formed by Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay, together with six associated countries (Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela).
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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.