South Africa appears poised to forge bigger and closer trade ties with Brazil, a country with an economy ranked among the world’s top 10, and the second largest in the Americas.
President Thabo Mbeki noted the visit of Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva to South Africa on Friday marked a further and important stage in the development of business and trade relations between the two countries.
In his weekly newsletter, published on the African National Congress website, ANC Today, he said the two should form a strong partnership to confront common challenges
Da Silva is set to arrive in South Africa on Friday afternoon, accompanied by his ministers for education, health, science, development and culture, as well as parliamentarians and about 100 business representatives.
Before arriving in the country, the Brazilian leader and his entourage visited the former Portuguese colonies of Sao Tome and Principe, Angola and Mozambique, as well as Namibia.
Mbeki said the first practical steps in forging a relationship between Brazil and South Africa were taken in 1994.
”President Lula da Silva’s visit to our country constitutes a further and important stage in the development of this relationship.
”In our discussions, we will therefore pay particular attention to new initiatives the two governments and countries can take further to deepen their relations.
”Of importance also is the fact that President Lula will be accompanied by an important delegation of Brazilian trade union and business leaders,” he said.
Da Silva had explained that his government saw the strengthening of its relations with the African continent as one of the central challenges of its foreign policy.
”The trip he has undertaken to our continent represents an important step towards the realisation of this goal.”
On common challenges, Mbeki said South Africa and Brazil were both developing countries of the South, with relatively well-developed economic sectors.
However, these existed ”side-by-side with serious levels of poverty and underdevelopment.
”The two countries have some of the widest disparities in terms of distribution of wealth, income and opportunity.
”Both have large black populations, who have been the victims of discrimination and social exclusion, and today constitute the majority of the poor and the marginalised.
”Our economies are open to the global economy, within which they are integrated. Therefore we share common concerns about all important matters that relate to the world economy.
”These include issues of trade, capital flows, intellectual property rights, technology transfers, and so on.”
The Brazilian economy was the largest in Latin America, whereas South Africa’s was the largest in sub-Saharan Africa.
”Our two countries also share common concerns about matters relating to the multilateral system of governance
”Accordingly, we would like to see a strengthened, democratised, and more representative multilateral system that is responsive to the needs of the billions of poor people in the world and is respected by all countries,” he said.
Together with South Africa and India, Brazil is seen as a strong voice for developing countries, and played a leading role during World Trade Organisation talks in Cancun, Mexico, earlier this year. – Sapa