Weekly Report - 4 November 2003
BRAZIL: Lula to `reopen African chapter'
Eight-day visit will be followed a month later by a tour of Arab countries: trade as well as political linkage on the agenda.
President Lula da Silva has embarked on what his foreign policy advisers call `the reopening of the African chapter' — an allusion to the period just prior to the independence of Portugal's African colonies when Brazil presented itself as a `bridge' country for them: black, Portuguese-speaking, developing and in command of intermediate technologies which would fit local requirements better than what the developed nations had on offer. At the time, Brazil was competing in the African arena with another Latin American country seeking a `bridging' role: Cuba.
From 2 to 10 November Lula will be visiting five African countries: São Tomé & Príncipe, Angola, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa — the first three, former Portuguese colonies; the latter, a partner in the G-22 at the Cancún WTO talks [WR-03-36]. There is an unabashed mercantile flavour to the tour: accompanying the President are 160 Brazilian businessmen interested in trading with or investing in Africa. Also invited are businessmen from other Mercosul countries.
Brazil last year exported to Africa goods worth US$2.3bn, almost 4% of its total exports. Its imports from Africa totalled US$3.6bn: balancing the resulting US$1.3bn trade deficit is a declared Brazilian policy objective. As put by Adalberto Camargo, president of the Afro-Brazilian chamber of commerce, `The African continent has a market of 800m people who eat, drink and work. This is a considerable number of buyers.' If trade with the 53 African countries were balanced, he adds, that continent would be `an ideal partner'.
Accompanying the commercial drive is a political appeal. Lula says, `The strengthening of relations with Africa is, for Brazil, a political, moral and ethical obligation. Brazil is the second-biggest black nation in the world, after Nigeria, and the government is determined to reflect this circumstance in its actions abroad.' Pedro Motta, director of Itamaraty's Africa department, says that Brazil will offer its cooperation in areas like medicine, particularly the eradication of AIDS and other contagious diseases, and in the effort to roll back poverty.
A month after the African tour, Lula will be taking off again across the Atlantic. From 2 to 10 December he will be visiting six Arab nations: Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Egypt and Libya. Trade and other links already exist with this group. Egypt is a G-22 partner, and Brazil has large communities of Syrian and Lebanese origin.
President Lula da Silva has embarked on what his foreign policy advisers call `the reopening of the African chapter' — an allusion to the period just prior to the independence of Portugal's African colonies when Brazil presented itself as a `bridge' country for them: black, Portuguese-speaking, developing and in command of intermediate technologies which would fit local requirements better than what the developed nations had on offer. At the time, Brazil was competing in the African arena with another Latin American country seeking a `bridging' role: Cuba.
From 2 to 10 November Lula will be visiting five African countries: São Tomé & Príncipe, Angola, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa — the first three, former Portuguese colonies; the latter, a partner in the G-22 at the Cancún WTO talks [WR-03-36]. There is an unabashed mercantile flavour to the tour: accompanying the President are 160 Brazilian businessmen interested in trading with or investing in Africa. Also invited are businessmen from other Mercosul countries.
Brazil last year exported to Africa goods worth US$2.3bn, almost 4% of its total exports. Its imports from Africa totalled US$3.6bn: balancing the resulting US$1.3bn trade deficit is a declared Brazilian policy objective. As put by Adalberto Camargo, president of the Afro-Brazilian chamber of commerce, `The African continent has a market of 800m people who eat, drink and work. This is a considerable number of buyers.' If trade with the 53 African countries were balanced, he adds, that continent would be `an ideal partner'.
Accompanying the commercial drive is a political appeal. Lula says, `The strengthening of relations with Africa is, for Brazil, a political, moral and ethical obligation. Brazil is the second-biggest black nation in the world, after Nigeria, and the government is determined to reflect this circumstance in its actions abroad.' Pedro Motta, director of Itamaraty's Africa department, says that Brazil will offer its cooperation in areas like medicine, particularly the eradication of AIDS and other contagious diseases, and in the effort to roll back poverty.
A month after the African tour, Lula will be taking off again across the Atlantic. From 2 to 10 December he will be visiting six Arab nations: Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Egypt and Libya. Trade and other links already exist with this group. Egypt is a G-22 partner, and Brazil has large communities of Syrian and Lebanese origin.
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