Brazil recovers market in the USA in 2008 and keeps its presence in spite of the crisis
Valor Econômico 03/30/2009
Brazil gained participation in the American imports in 2008 and, is spite of the recession in the United States, it was able to keep the "market share" in the beginning of 2009. Last year, Brazil had 1.45% of participation in the total of the imports of the USA, compared to the 1.31% from 2007, and continued practically at the same percentage in January of this year - 1.46%. Data of the Department of Commerce of the United States indicate that the purchases made by the Americans in Brazil decelerated less, in January, than the reduction of the total importation of the country in that month. In January, the imports made by the United States from the Brazilian market amounted to US$ 1.78 billion, with a fall of 21.84% compared to January 2008. Regarding the total of the American imports in January, they amounted to US$ 122.2 billion, 25.59% below the imports of the same month of 2008.
Figures from the Ministry of the Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (MDIC) indicate that the United States continue being the main Brazilian commercial partner, both in exports and in imports. In the first two months of 2009, the Brazilian exports to the United Stares amounted to US$ 2.31 billion, with a fall of 41% compared to the same period of 2008. Such a strong fall made the participation of the sales to the United States fall from 15% in January-February 2008 to nearly 12% in the same period of this year in relation to the global amount of the Brazilian exports. The Brazilian imports from the United States, on their turn, fell 1.6% in the January and February period. The purchases retracted US$ 3.6 billion in the first two months of 2008 to US$ 3.5 billion in the same period of this year. The American participation in the total imports of Brazil increased from 14.8% in the first two months of last year to 19.6% in the first two months of this year. As a result, the chain of commerce between both the countries retracted 22.2%, from US$ 7.5 billion to US$ 5.86 billion. The trade balance in the accumulated in January and February was negative to Brazil in US$ 1.22 billion, which interrupted a series of successive surpluses started in 2000. In the first two months, there was predominance in the Brazilian export of industrialized products over the basic products exported to the United States.