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China and Brazil sign agreement to trade in their local currencies
China and Brazil signed an agreement to do billions of dollars of trade in their local currencies, as the five-nation BRICS forum of emerging market powers work to lessen dependence on the US dollar and Euro. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesSo, Fernando Pimental, Brasil's Foreign Trade Minister, says that Brasil - like Africa - is becoming a neo-colony of China.
Mar 28th, 2013 - 01:08 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Pimental is right, China is buying up raw materials including metallics and oil, and selling (often 'dumping') clothing, domestic goods and technological products. The worrying part is that China - through 'front' companies - is buying up LAND as well as land products of timber, arable and livestock.
Trade is good - indeed, trade is great! but the overwhelming economic power of the greater party puts even this huge BRIC at great risk.
But what does it risk?
It risks that the low price of Chinese-made goods stops Brasilian domestic development. Brasilian high-tech that is competitive on the world markets is as rare as hen's teeth. There is no future for Brasil unless it protects and develops its own high-tech industries, and without this, Brasil will forever be a big, but just another, over-exploited South American nation.
Geoff
Mar 28th, 2013 - 02:01 pm - Link - Report abuse 0...and China will be forever a big but just another over-exploited South Asian sweat shop dependent on South American resources.
Who is more exploited, a Brazilian miner or a Chinese factory worker?
“Brasilian high-tech that is competitive on the world markets is as rare as hen's teeth.”
Brazil has the 4th largest aerospace industry in the world, ahead of both China and India. China would love to have an Embraer.
Brazil is the 7th largest car maker in the world.
Stop worrying about the Chinese, they are the best thing that has happened to Brazil in years.
Hi Condor ... same old argument!
Mar 28th, 2013 - 03:43 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Superficially, you are right. But look where the monies to raise the new 'middle class' out of poverty comes from - in Brasil: from 'Robin Hood' redistributions from the richer to the poorer, in China: from the trillions of 'dollars' transferred from the rest of the world to China.
Both are moving in the same direction; Brasil very slowly, China substantially faster. The vast numbers of the underclasses in China - and in Brasil - means that it will take decades if not centuries for their new systems to erradicate exploitation and corruption.
Embraer is the beacon of hope, but 'Brasil is the 7th largest car maker'!? ..perhaps it should be re-phrased to 'Brasil is where the big foreign countries have located much of their assembly and production'. Does Brasil have a vehicle industry?
I understand what you are telling me,
but in the Brave New BRIC World, some animals are most definitely more equal than others ... and the Chinese are *definitely* the pigs.
On the Farm they have taken over the house and they run the farm fields
.. their population demographic demands that they expand out into whatever countries they can buy up, and South America is just as much at risk as is Africa.
Hi Geoff,
Mar 28th, 2013 - 04:40 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Yes same old argument. Try as I might, I just can't get myself worried about the Chinese and I can't see the “risk” in doing business with them either.
You ask: “Does Brasil have a vehicle industry?”
Well if you are proposing that it doesn't because the foreign countries have located their assembly plants there...then by extension of same logic...does China have any industry at all?
The Chinese don't own the Iron mines in Brazil, they don't own the copper mines in Chile. They need us more than the other way round. They need our copper, to make their cheap tat. We don't need their cheap tat.
If India starts making cheap tat better than China tomorrow we will sell more copper to India.
We need not worry about the Chinese, what we must do is diversify away from our traditional industries with more urgency.
I think your leaders are a bit more worried than you. They are progressively cutting back on the amount of land able to be sold to foreign nationals .... and because such a vast area of land is 'not agricultural', to limit sales to eg 30% means that the majority of top class land IS available for sale to foreign buyers.
Mar 29th, 2013 - 01:33 pm - Link - Report abuse 0When there is little money left in a country, leaders and landowners sell the land itself.
Comment removed by the editor.
Mar 29th, 2013 - 04:15 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Thanks, Brasileiro.
Mar 29th, 2013 - 06:40 pm - Link - Report abuse 0good post about how Brasil can help itself.
Geoff, how is the economy of your country doing?
Apr 05th, 2013 - 04:40 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Strange how a good posting (#6) has been removed.
Apr 06th, 2013 - 12:05 pm - Link - Report abuse 0..............................................................................
#8. Which country, Brasil or England? ...
I still have hopes for Brasil .. especially if the oil/gas programmes are conducted wisely. Socio-economically, I love the rate of change that changes skylines on a daily basis.
As for England, the rate of change is low but the existing level of development is so high that the much higher GDP, expressed as the 'per person' figure, is so high that it can decline by 1/2 to 3/4 and still give a quality of life that is the envy of most of the world.
Personally, I prefer the 'edginess' of Brasil ... with all its problems!
Try http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_domestic_product
I think it could help you.
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