Mourão restarts China-Brazil Commission

Brazil’s Vice President, Hamilton Mourão, is in China to chair the fifth meeting of the China-Brazil Commission of High Level Agreement and Cooperation (Cosban) on May 23 in Beijing. The commission was suspended after the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff in 2016.

On the trip he will also be welcomed by Chinese President Xi Jinping and will have commitments in Shanghai.

According to Mourão in an interview with TV Brasil, the objective of the visit is to rescue and reorganize Cosban, the main mechanism for coordinating the bilateral relationship between Brazil and China. The commission is head up by the vice presidents of the two countries and was established in 2004.

“We will try to give a political message to the Chinese government and, at the same time, our position on the Belt and Road initiative, a new platform the Chinese government, over the last five years, has been seeking to put in world trade,” he said.

The One Belt, One Road initiative, also known as The New Silk Road, was launched in 2013 by Chinese President Xi Jinping and aims to promote cooperation agreements to develop infrastructure, trade and economic cooperation projects in the international community.

Agreement for Chinese barriers

In other news Brazil and China signed an agreement to prevent disputes over Chinese sugar barriers at the World Trade Organization (WTO). According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, China has promised not to extend the safeguard that protects its products beyond May 21, 2020.

Chinese steel in Brazil

Meanwhile, exports of rolled products (long steel, flat and tubes) and by-products (wire and welded tubes) from China to Brazil reached US$844.73m in the first four months of 2019, an increase of 37.8% compared to the same period in 2018.

Last year, the Brazilian market bought 1.03m tons of China’s steel products, 20% more than in 2017. The pace of growth in Latin America was much lower, with an increase of 4.2% to 7.3m tons. In contrast, the world bought 9% less steel from China last year.

Considering the indirect steel trade, imports of Chinese products in Latin America grew 16.57% in value in 2018 compared to 2017, to US$47.468bn, of which US$10.590bn was for Brazil alone, up 37.65%. The highlights in the region were cars and commercial vehicles.

Brazil-China Partnership

Since 2009, China has been Brazil’s main trading partner, with a value of US$98.9bn in 2018 (exports of US$64.2bn and imports of US$34.7bn). Bilateral trade recorded a Brazilian surplus, which has been maintained for nine years, and in 2018 reached a record US$29.5bn. Last year, the main products exported by Brazil were soybeans, fuels and iron ore and its concentrates. The main Chinese products imported by Brazil were drilling or exploration platforms, dredgers, manufactured products in general, printed circuits and other parts for telephone equipment.

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