MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Top Republican claims Obama is losing the Brazil battle to China

Richard Lugar is an influential member of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee

The US top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said President Barack Obama is missing opportunities to strike closer ties with Brazil, allowing China to steal market share from US companies in Latin America’s biggest economy.

In prepared remarks Senator Richard Lugar said the US needs to elevate its relationship with Brazil to the status currently enjoyed by longstanding allies such as Canada, the UK and Australia.

“The US agenda with Brazil should be much more ambitious” said Lugar in his speech to the Brazil-US Business Council. The advanced copy was provided to the media. “We are missing important opportunities to advance our mutual interests.”

Brazil is helping anchor global economic growth as the country invests to host the 2014 soccer World Cup, 2016 Olympic Games and state-run Petrobras develops the biggest offshore oil finds in the Americas in three decades. After expanding 7.5% in 2010, the central bank forecasts the 2.1 trillion dollars economy will grow 3.5% this year.

While applauding Obama for making Brazil the centerpiece of his tour of Latin America earlier this year, Lugar said that more engagement is needed. A bilateral tax treaty -- Brazil is the largest economy with which the US lacks such an accord -- and a market access agreement with the Brazil and Argentina-led Mercosur trade bloc would help regain lost momentum, Lugar said.

“In too many cases, US market share is being lost to China and other countries whose governments have moved more swiftly to embrace the opportunities of the Brazilian market,” Lugar said. “It’s critical to move now, not only because of competition from Asia and elsewhere, but because Brazil’s economic role in the hemisphere is expanding rapidly.”

National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said Obama is committed to increasing US-Brazil ties and that the US was supporting Brazil’s desire to play a bigger role in organizations like the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and the Group of 20 nations.

China overtook the US as Brazil’s biggest trading partner in 2009 on stronger demand for the nation’s soybeans and iron- ore. Still, exports of US goods to Brazil have surged 22% so far this year, helping to pad a US trade surplus with the country that stood at 9.7 billion dollars through September.