Luciana Lima         Reporter Agência Brasil

Brasília – In a speech yesterday, president Dilma Rousseff declared that the international crisis was not due to a lack of money but rather incapacity to make the necessary political decisions.

“I believe that this crisis is definitely not because of a lack of money. All of them have money. The problem is that political decisions are not being made.”

Dilma went on to say that one of the ways to confront the crisis was to do what Mercosur did: expand its list of goods with special tariffs.

“In the case of Mercosur, we achieved a great victory at our summit this week. We increased our list of goods with special tariffs by 100 items. That means Brazil can tax imports at World Trade Organization levels… this is a measure that will allow us to avoid the most perverse effects of this crisis: systematic disloyal competition, dumping, exchange rate wars and the artificial devaluation of currencies in order to invade our market or other world markets,” declared Dilma.

In other comments, Dilma once again criticized the political situation in the United States. She cited the debt ceiling debate in August as an example of a fight between the government and opposition that delayed a necessary decision. She said that in Brazil things are different.

“I think that in Brazil we are in the vanguard of a republican relationship. We just don’t do things the way they do in some countries, including some that are international leaders, where the government and the opposition are unable to work in the interests of the nation, but instead engage in endless political fighting.”

This was not the first time that Dilma criticized American politics, citing the debt ceiling crisis as an example. Last Friday (December 16) at a breakfast with journalists she said: “The debt ceiling crisis in the US left us perplexed. It was like watching somebody shoot himself in the foot. The next day their AAA rating was lowered. And now they are printing money, which is not much in the way of punishment.”

Dilma said the relationship between the government and the opposition in Brazil was republican. “I believe strongly in this partnership that we have developed in Brazil. It is showing maturity. It is a republican partnership. We are not worried about what political party is involved, what the political position of our partners is. We are interested, and this is a victory for the country, in the population of different municipalities and different states, because we are dealing with their legitimate elected representatives.”

Dilma made her remarks at a ceremony celebrating the signing of contracts for basic sanitation projects for small towns (population of less than 50,000) that are part of the government’s Accelerated Growth Program (“PAC”). In the audience were dozens of mayors and governors from all over Brazil.

Allen Bennett – translator/editor The News in English

Link - Dilma diz que crise não é por falta de dinheiro e elogia avanço do Mercosul