Guedes defends economic integration and free trade with China

Today (13/11), the Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes, said that Brazil needs to seek greater integration with the world and pointed possible ways for a new performance in the global scenario, such as the negotiations about a free trade area with China, one of the main trading partners of the country. The statements were made during the opening of the seminar NDB and Brazil: Strategic Partnership for Sustainable Development in Brasilia. NBD is the Brics Development Bank, a group made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

“We are talking to China about the possibility of ‘free trade’ while talking about joining the OECD [Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development],” said the Minister. Guedes has avoided detailed discussions about the meetings with the Chinese government, but stressed the growing volume of trade registered in recent years between the two countries. “The flow of trade with China was about US$2bn at the turn of the century. Today we are negotiating US$100bn. They are our most important trading partner,” he said.

The minister also cited relations with India, considered “a giant of the global economy”, which still reveal a small trade flow with Brazil. “With China we are very close in this dimension of trade. In India, we are far away. Our flow is of US$3bn or US$4bn,” he said.

#BRICS | Ministro Paulo Guedes abre, em Brasília, reunião de ministros de Comércio dos países participantes ? https://t.co/m5lBMk7wv1 pic.twitter.com/LdF6tbrWHD

— Ministério da Economia (@MinEconomia) November 12, 2019

For Guedes, Brazil should follow examples of integration of countries in Europe and Asia that have raised the “standard of living” of the populations. “The Chinese, Indian, Malaysian, Filipino, everyone is raising the standard of living. Meanwhile, here, particularly Latin America, Mercosur, has done the opposite: like an ostrich, we stick our heads in the ground. We stay closed. Our standard of living is getting worse,” he said.

During the seminar about the NDB, Guedes argued that Brazil’s change of attitude should occur in the area of trade, investment, and technology development in the digital world.

“NDB is a key player in this game. We want it not only for the money [borrowed from the bank], we want it for the experience in the production of efficient infrastructure as China has done. China has done extraordinary infrastructure work,” said Guedes.

According to the minister, Brazil has been isolated for 40 years and now the government intends to speed up the opening of the economy. “We will do 40 years in 4,” he said. Guedes assured that the country has no interest in wars or trade tensions. “We want to be friends with everyone. We are open for business,” he added.

The following chart, made from Datamar’s DataLiner data, shows Brazil’s exports and imports with China since 2015:

Graph source: DataLiner/Datamar

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