08/26/2008 09h05
China is already Brazils second biggest partner
Valor Econômico - 08/26/2008
China surpassed Argentina and became Brazil's second biggest partner, only behind the United States. In the 12 months until July, the current of commerce (the sum of exportations and importations) reached US$ 31.9 billion between Brazilians and Chinese. The value is above the US$ 29.3 billion of commerce in the period with Argentina, a neighboring country and main partner in Mercosur. With the USA, the largest economy of the world, it is at US$ 49.2 billion, according to data from the Secretariat of Foreign Trade (Secex), of the Ministry of Development. A series of factors collaborated for this move in positions, such as the increase of the commodities' prices - which inflated the Brazilian exportations to China, mainly of soybean and iron ore - and the crisis of the American economy, which stimulated the Chinese exporters to diversify markets even more. The downturn in the foreign trade is reason for concern for the national industry, which criticizes the "perverse complementarity", since Brazil sells basic products to China and imports manufactured goods. Argentina ended last year ahead of China in the exchanges with Brazil, but by a narrow margin: US$ 24.8 billion against US$ 23.4 billion. China had already beat Argentina as a Brazilian supplier in the beginning of 2007 and the distance has only increased. In the 12 months until July, Brazil imported US$ 17 billion from China and US$ 12 billion from Argentina. As a destination for the Brazilian products, Argentina is in second place, but it should also lose this position this month. Brazil exported US$ 17.3 billion to Argentina and US$ 14.6 billion to China in the same comparison.
