BRAZIL-US: Rocket Launch Base Accord Faces Resistance in Congress

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 30 2001 (IPS) - The Brazilian government is stepping up its efforts to prevent Congress from rejecting a treaty that will allow the United States to use the Alcantara base in northern Brazil for launching satellites.

A group of lawmakers of all stripes is opposed to the agreement on the argument that it violates national sovereignty.

Minister of Science and Technology Ronaldo Sardenberg stated in an interview published by the daily O Globo that the future of Brazil’s space programme would be jeopardised if parliament failed to ratify the Technological Safeguards Accord (AST).

The treaty, signed by the governments of Brazil and the United States last April, will go into force only if it is ratified by both chambers of the Brazilian parliament – which is looking increasingly unlikely given the resistance expressed in the first debates on the issue.

In an article printed by the Jornal do Brasil Wednesday, Foreign Minister Celso Lafer said those who interpreted the agreement as entailing subordination to U.S. interests were making a “wrong reading” of the accord.

One of the most outspoken critics was parliamentary Deputy Waldir Pires, a member of the Chamber of Deputies’ Foreign Relations Commission, who called for the AST to be rejected as a “gross violation of national sovereignty.”

The accord is almost exclusively comprised of obligations with which Brazil is to comply, in order to fulfill the objective, which is to protect U.S. technology, argued Pires, a parliamentarian of the leftist Workers Party.

One of the clauses that has upset critics stipulates that certain areas of the Alcantara launch centre will be reserved for the exclusive use of the United States, which will have to authorise right of access, even for Brazilian authorities.

The treaty also prohibits Brazilian customs authorities from inspecting containers holding equipment and material to be used by U.S. aeronautics and space companies.

In addition, the revenues obtained through the accord must not go towards the satellite launch vehicle that Brazil is developing in its bid to join the handful of countries disputing the market for outer space services. Furthermore, any transfer of technology is prohibited.

But Pires said the worst aspect was that the treaty gave Washington the right to veto the leasing of Alcantara to countries subjected to sanctions by the United Nations Security Council, or by countries whose governments are seen by the United States as supporting terrorist activity.

These are “political, not technological, safeguards,” complained Pires, who has the backing of a group of legislators that includes key members of the governing coalition like José Anibal Pontes, the president of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), to which President Fernando Henrique Cardoso belongs.

In an attempt to salvage the accord, ministers Lafer and Sardenberg attended a public hearing convoked by the Foreign Relations Commission. But they were unable to sway the parliamentarians.

Through the AST, the Alcantara base could take in revenues of 40 to 50 million dollars a year, according to Sardenberg.

Brazil has already invested 300 million dollars in the base, which is to be leased to other countries, not just the United States, Foreign Minister Lafer pointed out.

Because it is located so near the equator – just 2.5 degrees to the south – Brazil’s satellite launch base can offer costs that are 20 to 30 percent lower than costs in the United States or Russia, Sardenberg explained.

An agreement with the United States, whose space and aeronautics companies control 80 percent of the satellite market, is indispensable to capitalising on Brazil’s competitive edge, he said.

There are only eight satellite launch bases in the world serving the commercial space launch market, and the AST provides an opportunity for Brazil to break into that market, he underlined.

Lafer, meanwhile, argued that Washington’s requirements were logically numerous, because very sensitive technology is involved, which must be protected from possible risks and from undesired technology transfer to third party countries.

Foreign control over areas of the Alcantara base will be only temporary, and will be granted only for specific launch operations, and negotiated on a case-by-case basis, stressed Sardenberg, who maintained that the accord did not imply a surrender of Brazilian sovereignty.

In fact, the contract is similar to the ones that authorise foreign airlines to use Brazilian airports, he added.

Similar agreements have been signed by the United States and other countries competing in the international market of outer space services, like China, Russia and the Ukraine, Lafer pointed out.

U.S. satellites are now launched from bases in French Guiana, China and Russia, although using local rockets. European countries and the Ukraine also use foreign bases, said Sardenberg.

But remarks by lawmakers from several parties indicate that despite the ministers’ arguments, it will not be easy for the Cardoso administration to overcome the resistance to the agreement.