Brazil/China

Lula ends China visit with billion-dollar deals

Article published on the 2009-05-20 Latest update 2009-05-20 13:40 TU

Lula and Hu Jintao
(Photo: Reuters)

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva left China for Turkey Wednesdat after closing deals worth billions of dollars with Beijing. Lula said agreements in the oil and finance sectors could help increase ties between Brazil and other developing countries. Despite the deals, the domestic Brazilian press is showing little interest in his trip.

The Brazilian President  wrapped up his three-day trip with a visit to the China Academy of Space Technology on Wednesday, having met Chinese leaders the day before. The Academy aims to lauch three joint Brazil-China satellites by 2013 as part of a programme that develops observation satellites.

The two nations signed 13 agreements, including a ten-billion-dollar loan, from the China Development Bank to Brazil's state oil company Petrobras. Petrobras also concluded a deal with a subsidiary of China's oil refiner Sinopec for the export of crude oil.

Da Silvao and Chinese Preisdent Hu Jintao said that partnership between the two countries "was of heightened importance" in the context of the current financial crisis.

The Brazilian delegations wanted to discuss the export of Brazil's Embraer aircrafts, as a deal to supply a Chinese airline is currently on hold. Embraer has a two-billion-dollar contract to sell 50 airplanes to Kunpeng airline but only five planes have been delivered. Local authorities in China have been limiting import authorisation.

"I've talked to Hu Jintao about Embrear and the contracts," Da Silva said. "However, we were not able to convince the Chinese authorities. "They said that, due to the crisis, imports were suspended, like in many other parts of the world."

The main commercial deal during the trip concerned poultry exports to China, which should start in less than a month.

However, the delegation failed to persuade the Chinese, who are world's biggest consumers of pork products, to open their market to Brazilian pork exports.

"The important thing is that the Brazilian business community keeps meeting with its Chinese counterparts," Da Silva said, "The possibility of further co-operation is enormous."

The Brazilian press, which is traditionally very critical of the President, is not covering the trip to China as a top story.

O Estadão, one of São Paulo largest daily papers, reported that during the trip the President said he would not run for a third presidential term. However A Folha, the largest Brazilian newspaper, has only made a brief reference to the visit.