Brazilian Senator Katia Abreu, former minister of agriculture, was elected as the new chairwoman of the Senate Foreign Relations and Defense Committee (CRE) on Tuesday. In her first speech after being elected, she called for greater trade cooperation with China and the European Union to be a priority.
'Brazil is the Western country with the largest trade surplus with China,' Mr. Catia said, according to the Agencia Senado news agency. 'This presents new opportunities for Brazil to continue to benefit from China's development, as China has enjoyed high economic growth for decades.'
"Most of our exports now go to Asia, to China," Katia said. Among Western countries, we have the biggest trade surplus with China, far ahead of the US and Europe. China plans to increase its GDP by trillions of dollars over the next 15 years. Brazil accounts for 4 per cent of China's imports. Even if we maintain 4 per cent without any increase, as China continues to grow, Brazil will increase its income more every year than it will get from pension reform." One of Ms. Katia's guidelines, according to her remarks, is to work with the Brazilian government to expand foreign trade agreements with China.
Another priority she announced was to strengthen parliamentary diplomacy and continue to work with the Brazilian government so that the free trade agreement between Mercosur and the EU, signed in 2019, can be ratified by parliaments of individual member states as soon as possible.
"Another priority of Brazilian diplomacy should be to revive negotiations between the EU and Mercosur so that this bloc will form and will become one of the largest blocs in the world, with 780 million people and 25% of the world's GDP. The Ministry of Economy estimates that it will increase our GDP by between $87 billion and $100 billion over the first 15 years. It could also attract $113 billion in new investment to Brazil over 15 years." "Katia said.
Ms. Katia also said she had discussed holding a public hearing with Marcos Troyjo, the head of the New Development Bank, and said Brazil could have a credit line of 13 billion reais at the bank.
"Mr. Troyo made it clear that he was ready to lend 13 billion reais to Brazil's states and municipalities without sovereign guarantees. These funds can help many capital cities and large cities, and even smaller cities can benefit from various projects. For the private sector as well, you can get involved in sectors like energy and agriculture." Ms. Katia said she planned to call governors to the public hearing and outline in detail how to obtain a credit line.
