Brazil and China's relations: opportunities for Brazilian agricultural trade
China and Brazil, under the BRICS alliance, have strengthened their commercial relationship since 2009. China has become Brazil largest commercial partner due to China's economic growth and demand for raw material and agricultural products. Brazil has, indeed, large areas of farmland which represent an opportunity for investment and trade between China and Brazil, through the BRICS alliance. China, on the other hand, lacks from available land for agriculture due to the rapid process of urbanization and the attention paid to other productive sectors. While the population increases, the Chinese urbanizations expand as well as the demand for food. In 2013, China became the largest destination for Brazil's agricultural products with $22.88 billion in trade . Out of this amount, $17.15 billion come from soybeans which is the main agricultural export product to China. This fact positioned Brazil as China's largest supplier of soybeans .
Brazil can find economic motivations from the feeding necessities in China. The government of China faces challenges in providing food for its people. This occurs because, whilst the country has gone under rapid industrial development, the productive farmlands disappeared, thus national food supply decreases. Besides being the world's largest consumers of grains, the Chinese diet demands more meat. In 2012, the meat consumption reached 80 million tons and it is projected to increase by 2020 while middle class population grows in 40% with higher salaries. While the government is still able to supply meat to the demanding population, it has problems managing the national production of grains. The Beijing security policy was inte...
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... local communities can be motivated with the social development in the region. At the same time, migration from the countryside to the cities can be prevented.
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Whether the impact of the entrance of China's SOEs is negative or positive, much of it depends on the enforcement of Brazilian policies. Thus, Option 1, is not recommended since private companies would not generate as much development as China's SOEs in the agriculture sector. This briefing paper, on the other hand, recommends Option 2, since it explains the impacts of the presence of China's SOEs and the approaches to be taken in consideration in order to avoid negative spillovers from the Chinese agrarian investment. Therefore, the implications for national food security must be addressed by strengthening and implementing environmental, sustainability and agricultural taxation policies.
For the government to overcome deficiencies efficiently in the sectors of industry, the private sector must have an active involvement in capital investment and creation of services. Brazil’s potential in a global market is set back by inefficiencies in infrastructure that turn away private investment.
Globalisation has been crucial to the economic and social development of Brazil. In the late twentieth century Brazil face years of economic, political and social instability experiencing high inflation, high income inequality and rapidly growing poverty. However after a change of government in the 1990s and large structural changes in both the economic and social landscapes, the brazilian economy has been experiencing a growing middle class and reduced income gap. Since the start of the 21st century, brazil has benefitted from the move to a more global economy.
Brazil is the largest economy in South America. Under the leadership of former president Henrique Cardoso in the 1990's, the country's macro economic situation stabilized significantly. As the new millennium began, the leadership of president Cardoso's successor, former president Lula da Silva saw the country's economy accelerate significantly such that the Lehman scandal effect failed to significantly affect its growth (The Economist). Brazil economy reported an economic growth rate of more than seven percent in 2010 which is considered as its best performance in 25 years. This trend saw the country awarded the lucrative rights to host this year's FIFA World Cup Finals. However, this has changes dramatically after former president Lula da Siva convinced Brazilian voters to elect Dilma Rousseff as their next president (The Economist). Currently, the country' macro economic status is in turmoil with economic growth in 2012 reported to have been at less than 1%. This essay seeks to analyze the contemporary macro economic conditions in Brazil and present a commentary on the...
Due to its high population rate (large labour pool), its vast natural resources and its geographical position in the centre of South America, it bears enormous growth potential in the near future. Aligned with increasing currency stability, international companies have heavily invested in Brazil over the past decade. According to CIA World Factbook, Brazil had the 11th largest PPP in 2004 worldwide and today has a well established middle income economy with wide variations in levels of development. Thus, today Brazil is South America's leading economic power and a regional leader. 2.
Brazil is a vast country in South America that has experienced extreme wealth and income disparities since its independence in 1822. The uneven income distribution, combined with several other factors, is what accounts for millions of civilians living in impoverished conditions. The Northeast is the country’s most afflicted region, with an estimated 58% of the population living in poverty and earing less than $2 a day. The systemic inequality as well as lack of development and modernization has generated chronic poverty that has had detrimental effects on society in northeast and ultimately weakens Brazil.
Recently, there has been a concerted effort from the Brazilian government to project their country as a “serious” power on the international stage. After many years of what could be deem as a failure of realized potential, Brazil is finally beginning to understand its worth as a major contributor to world affairs. Given its strategic location as the second most important country on in the Western hemisphere, and arguably the most important country on the Southern hemisphere, Brazil is poised to become an international powerhouse, the like of which South America has never seen. To fully utilize the opportunities being presented to Brazil in the coming years it is imperative that the Dilma regime bolster its reputation through increased efforts of international cooperation with emerging world markets.
Valdes, Constanza. "Brazil Emerges as Major Force in Global Meat Markets." AmberWaves April (2006). Web. 30 Oct. 2011.
Colombia is one of the oldest democracies in Latin America with solid functioning institutions, progressive laws, an active civil society, and one of the most ecologically diverse countries in the world. Economically speaking, Colombia has had a surprisingly turnaround over the past decade due to the confidence and business opportunities that the investors have found in its emerging market. However, the improvements made in the economy are not sufficient to ensure sustainable economic development. On May 15, 2012, the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) went into effect, and after almost two years its effects have had a negative impact in Colombia’s economy, mainly in its agricultural sector, which constitutes 11.5% of the country’s GDP (Cámara Colombo Coreana). The farmers complain that cheap imports from the United States are hurting their sector leaving some of them almost in bankruptcy. During August and September 2013, the country was in a nationwide strike against the Free Trade Agreement, which had different areas of the country paralyzed specially in Bogota, the capital city.
Around the 1930s, Brazil and Latin American began following the process of Import Substitution Industrialization, which lasted until the end of the 1980s. The ISI policies devaluated the currency in order to boost exports and discourage imports, followed by adopting different exchange rates for goods (Watkins). ISI in Brazil had an interesting effect; it created a three-prong system of governmental, private, and foreign capital being directed at the infrastructure and heavy industry, manufacturing goods, and the production of durable goods. The program worked at first but then became a serious economic problem. When the 1980s came around Brazil realized that ISI policies lead to inefficient industries because of their lack of exposure to international competition, the policies ignoring the rural sector, and finally limiting the local producers. Following the end of the ISI policies, Brazil went through many plans to correct the economy and none seemed to work until the Real Plan made real changes to the country.
From the 1970s, there has been a wave of liberalization in China, which was introduced by Deng Xiaoping. This is one of the key reasons to the rise of China to be one of the economic giants in the world. In the last 25 years of the century, the Chinese economy has had massive economic growth, which has been 9.5 percent on a yearly basis. This has been of great significance of the country since it quadrupled the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country thus leading to saving of 400 million of their citizens from the threats of poverty. In the late 1970s, China was ranked twentieth in terms of trade volumes in the whole world as well as being predicted to be the world’s top nation concerning trading activities (Kaplan, 53). This further predicted the country to record the highest GDP growth in the whole world.
"Can South America China-ify Its Economy Without Destroying The Amazon? | Co.Exist | Ideas Impact." Co.Exist. Web. 04 Dec. 2013.
China has an area of 9.6 million square kilometers and a coastline of 18,000 kilometers (Network Center of MOFCOM, 2004). It has a population of 1,401,586,609 people as of 2015 (Worldometers, 2015). In China, they tend to eat a lot of the same foods. Some of the local food consists of rice, noodles, fish, vegetables and meats (Parkinson, 2011). “China is described as a collectivist country because it “emphasizes the needs and goals of the group as a whole over the needs and wishes of each individual ().”
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Women, migrations, environment and rural development policy in Brazil. Date retrieved 28 January, 2004. http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/x0210e/x0210e00.htm
The rise in China from a poor, stagnant country to a major economic power within a time span of twenty-eight years is often described by analysts as one of the greatest success stories in these present times. With China receiving an increase in the amount of trade business from many countries around the world, they may soon be a major competitor to surpass the U.S. China became the second largest economy, last year, overtaking Japan which had held that position since 1968 (Gallup). China could become the world’s largest economy in decades.