Apr 06, 2010
Chinese President To Visit Brazil
Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.
After the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, completes his visit to Washington where he will discuss nuclear security with President Obama, he is off to Brazil to discuss business at the second meeting of the so-called Bric countries - Brazil, Russia, India, and China.
He will also conduct high-level meetings with both public and private enterprises in Brazil that wish to expand the amount of trade between the two countries particularly in the areas of agricultural commodities, energy, and minerals. He is scheduled to visit the construction site of a new port called the Porto do Acu. This is a private port being build by Eike Batista that will focus on iron ore exports to China. China is the largest importer of iron ore and Brazil is the largest exporter of iron ore, so it is a good match for the two countries.
This is the Chinese president's second trip to Brazil. After his first trip to Brazil in 2004, China increased their presence in Brazil's petroleum and natural gas sectors. Brazil's recent discovery of huge petroleum reserves off its southeastern coast is of keen interest to the Chinese. The petroleum is in deep water and it's going to be very difficult and expensive to develop the fields. It is possible that the Chinese might be willing to finance some of the developmental costs in exchange for some type of guarantee of future petroleum supplies.
A congressional delegation from Brazil was in China several months ago looking for technical expertise and financing of some of their more ambitious infrastructure projects including railroad construction and port expansion. China is Brazil's largest customer for agricultural products and Brazil is the largest supplier of these same products to China, It would be to China's advantage to do whatever they could to lower the cost of transporting agricultural commodities in Brazil from the interior to export facilities.
After visiting Brazil, the Chinese President will visit Venezuela and Chile.