Agencia Brasil

Rio de Janeiro – In the last two years, Brazil has increased its trade relations with India by 106%, and by 86% with South Africa, according to Ambassador Mário Vivalva, who participated in the 3rd Inter-Ministerial Commission Meeting of the India/Brazil/South Africa Dialogue Forum (IBAS). The meeting ends today (30), in Rio de Janeiro. In the Ambassador’s opinion, IBAS creation contributed for this improvement, and may further intensify trade relations between the three countries.

Brazil Minister of Foreign Relations, Celso Amorim, also said he is optimistic about trading perspectives. He believes it may even contribute for advancing World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations. "We are establishing the South-South trading, therefore, better conditions for negotiating at the WTO, where we fight for the elimination of subsidies and opening of markets."

Celso Amorim said that in spite of having been invited, India will not participate in an informal meeting about the WTO Doha Round, scheduled for tomorrow (31), in Rio de Janeiro. The meeting, which will end Saturday (1), will have the presences of the European Union Commissioner for External Trade, Peter Mandelson, the United States Trade Representative, Robert Portman, and WTO Director-General, Pascal Lamy.

In the last four years, preliminary data presented by the Brazilian Minister, indicate a 170% trade exchange increase with South Africa: from US$314.92 million (R$700 million) in 2001 to US$764.8 million (R$1.7 billion) in 2005. With India, numbers went up from US$450 million (R$1 billion) to US$1.034 billion (R$2.3 billion), during the same time period.

The IBAS Forum was created in 2003 with the objective of establishing a closer relationship between Brazil, India and South Africa, through the discussion of issues such as trade and investments, science and technology, energy, transportation, and information society.

Translation: Andréa Alves