MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Lord Mandelson calls for UK to boost trade with Bric countries
Britain could boost its exports by £27 billion if it increased its share of trade with four of the world's fastest growing economies, Lord Mandelson has said. In a speech in London, the former business secretary drew attention to findings that suggest UK exports to Brazil, Russia, India and China - the so-called 'Bric countries' - are lagging behind the rest of the world. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rulesDoes anyone in the UK still listen to this fool ?
Mar 12th, 2011 - 05:45 am - Link - Report abuse 0In general terms, I tend to agree that the Prince Of Darkness has not been uniformally 'a good thing' for the UK and its economy.
Mar 12th, 2011 - 07:03 pm - Link - Report abuse 0However, in this instance, he is voicing things that I have argued for for the last three years.
During the years that I have lived in Brasil I have lost count of the times I have observed poor practice, poor workmanship, poor (machine)tools, poor products - all in a country with poor education and abysmal infrastructure.
The country is crying out for high-end partnerships - and at last, through Dilma Rousseff, there is a possibility that the ideological stranglehold on development and trading partnerships can lead to Brasil becoming a true member of the first world community of trading nations.
Not as a 'passive' supplier of raw materials and food products (alone), but as a world producer of high-end goods, produced in partnership with the UK.
There is no reason why all such partnerships should gravitate to the US, to Japan, to Germany and to China.
UK companies are becoming insular and timid in the world market-place.
Brasilian companies (with few exceptions) look no further afield than South America.
Together, and through the bonds being built linking Mercosur and the EU, bi-lateral partnerships can bring easy trade into a billion homes and workplaces on two continents . . . . . and then to compete and succeed with the rest of the trading world.
My opinion on this man ,,, If he was pro, British and pro British military,
Mar 12th, 2011 - 11:06 pm - Link - Report abuse 0and anti European , this man with his arrogance and despicable manner, would be fantastic for Britain, he would tell the Europeans to fax off, scrap the European rights laws, and by now we would have a powerful military and Argentina would have been put firmly in her place years ago,
,,,,,,,, but sadly the arrogance of this man against the working class was disgusting, he is by far anti British, pro European, his wish to be president of the Euro train if he could, and I do not like him at all, but to be fair when it comes to trade, he knows what he is talking about,, sadly another possible geniuses , that turned out to be a loser, ??
geoff, just out of curiosity, what Brazil could produce in partnership with the UK? No, seriously, what does the UK produce? Of the largest European markets, the UK is the weakest in manufacturing capacity and it is known to outsource a good deal of services - such as IT services - overseas. I mean, as the article points out, Brazil at least has a larger manufacturing base than the UK does and it is competitive in areas the UK is not (aircraft building, for instance). Be that as it may, I think you've misread what the guy's saying. He's saying the UK should EXPORT more to those markets so as to close a trade deficit, he's not asking for partnerships. And he probably isn't because, as I said before, the UK doesn't have much to offer in expertise in high-vale added goods; the engine of UK capitalism is financial services, not innovation.
Mar 13th, 2011 - 06:24 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Hi Forgetit,
Mar 13th, 2011 - 11:26 pm - Link - Report abuse 0nice postings elsewhere on Mercopress, good to see you staying out of the F.I./M morasse and invective.
Yes, the UK has taken its technology to China, sometimes lock stock and barrel. This makes it no different from most other developed countries, and it is a positive feedback - there is no way back in the short & med term until Chinese wage costs start to soar. The high-end expertise still exists in the UK workforce but it operates in a multitude of countries, especially China - this 'UK ' workforce works all over the world, adding value to products through the accumulated expertise at the sharp end of (eg) aero-engines (Rolls Royce), airframe (Airbus), high performance auto-control systems (McLaren/F1).
I throw out these examples because these are areas that would link into a Brasilian Embraer S.A. expansion to join the 'big boys' big plane game.
Equally the new McLaren high volume composite monocoque technologies might revolutionise S.A. high-end vehicle production.
In my old area, pharmaceutics and G.M., r&d for tropical/sub-tropical agro/vet/human diseases, disorders, strain improvements, etc. is a huge area for partnership operations - some of which exist.
The new Cancun agreements on exploitation of novel products from indigenous 'biodiversity' locations such as Amazonia, are woefully under-understood by the Brasilian authorities (compare the protocols provided by Brasil with those from the UK). These novel products, when discovered under licence by UK universities/companies, can be researched and developed within Brasil rather than exported - under joint r&d programmes, with joint patent rights. EU-Mercosur links provide billions of potential buyers of the developed products.
Mandleson would be happy with increased mutual trade volume, not just the import export balance. Remember the UK GDP (2010) is $2.25T, and Brasil's is $2.0T; both economies have great strengths and great weaknesses, but these are COMPLEMENTARY, not competitive.
@GeoffWard
Mar 14th, 2011 - 08:19 am - Link - Report abuse 0You show UK industrial capabilities as being of very vigorous activity. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, however, technological innovation in the UK is anemic as compared to that in other European economic powerhouses. The UK produces only a quarter of the number of patents conceded to residents in Germany, and only half of that produced by residents in Russia or France: the latter, a country whose overall outlook - population, GDP, life standards - doesn't differ that much from that of the UK. That the UK is home to competitive technology companies of global reach, might be true. But how much of their activities have been outsourced abroad? I mean, not just the manufacturing part of the production chain, but also the high-valued added activities of designing and engineering? I remember reading on The Economist sometime ago about measures adopted by the Sarkozy regime to avoid a serious leap in unemployment figures a few months after the financial and sovereign debt crises broke out in the Northern Hemisphere. One such measure was to concede tax cuts for French car-makers so as to limit the number of layoffs during the downturn. The article had that usual condescending tone The Economist reserves to French dirigisme and related kinds of statist industrial policies. One French reader then commented on the users section: at least France, in contrast to the UK, still has car-makers to protect. No doubt the user was prompted to make that comment by patriotism, but that does call attention to the fact that the main engine of UK capitalism is financial services, not industrial innovation.
Think you'll find the following text of interest. http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/halevi070910p.html
(5) Geoff
Mar 14th, 2011 - 08:19 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Don't try tro patronize Forgetit87...
This kid is good.....
Do as your Brazilian wife says.....
Think,
Mar 15th, 2011 - 01:45 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I feel sure that Forgetit can speak for him/herself.
We have some rather good discussions, and I appreciate the depth of his debate.
Is he a 'kid', or someone with maturity through experience?
I think the latter, from his contributions.
And re: my wife - our dog house is reserved for family disagreement, not fun-on-the-web.
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