POLITICS-BRAZIL: Taking on a Stronger Foreign Policy Role

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 17 2001 (IPS) - Brazil confirmed at the fourth ministerial conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) that it has built a foreign policy with a certain degree of coherency and effectiveness.

The biggest triumph celebrated by Brazil at the Nov 9-14 conference in Doha, the capital of Qatar, was a declaration making it possible to override pharmaceutical patents in cases of public health crises.

But there have been other achievements, both in the WTO, where Brazil asserted a moderate leadership role among developing countries, and outside the area of trade.

President Fernando Henrique Cardoso recently called for “globalisation with solidarity,” in speeches delivered in Spain and France in late October and at the opening of the United Nations General Assembly on Nov 10.

Cardoso is also calling for the democratisation of international relations, through the incorporation of a larger number of countries in the United Nations Security Council and economic decision-making bodies like the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Brazil’s trade diplomacy has become “more aggressive,” according to critics of the way things used to be done, like Professor Gilberto Dupas, at the University of Sao Paulo, and Luis Furlán, vice-president of the Sao Paulo Industrial Federation.

Contributing to that trend were the country’s external accounts difficulties, marked by a trade deficit that has built up since 1995 and the consequent dependence on foreign capital, which has aggravated the economy’s vulnerability to outside financial crises.

Brazil has taken a louder stance against inequalities in global trade and on the political, financial and technological fronts.

In Doha, Brazil and other nations successfully pushed for the inclusion in the new round of multilateral trade talks of a review of the rules on export credits, the current application of which represents a major disadvantage for developing countries.

The greater financial capacity of rich countries enables them to support exports with low interest rates. For that reason, Brazil lost a dispute with Canada in the WTO, when it offered credit at international levels for its aircraft exports.

The Sep 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington also contributed to Brazil’s diplomatic offensive on several fronts.

President Cardoso is taking advantage of the global commotion to defend a more equitable “new international order” as a form of fighting terrorism by removing its root causes.

Up to now, Brazil’s foreign policy has received more criticism than praise, due to its weak presence regarding the big global questions, by contrast with the size of the country and its economy, and with the role played by other regional powers, like China and India.

Brazil’s scant international influence is reflected in its foreign image. Despite its progress in areas like biotechnology and aeronautics, Latin America’s giant, a country of 170 million, remains known in the world today mainly for its football and carnival, according to a study sponsored by the National Transport Federation.

The survey, carried out August to October by the Sensus Institute in 22 countries on all of the world’s continents, found that 36.6 percent of the 8,912 people interviewed associated Brazil with football and other sports, and 19.4 percent with carnival.

Between six and eight percent associated it with poverty, beaches and jungles inhabited by indigenous peoples.

According to the poll, the best-known Brazilians are legendary footballer Pele, marked by 33.9 percent of respondents, and Ronaldo (19.7 percent) – both of whom are far better-known than President Cardoso (3.8 percent).

For 58.2 percent of respondents, coffee is still Brazil’s chief export product, even though it lost that position over two decades ago and is today surpassed by sales of aircraft, vehicles, footwear, soy, beef and sugar.

The narrow vision of Brazil is a consequence of insufficient information on Brazilian reality, and of a presence abroad that is limited to sports, trade and tourism, Mario Marconini, executive director of the Brazilian Centre on International Relations (CEBRI), told IPS.

Brazil’s foreign image “has improved immensely in the past 20 years, but it is a slow process that requires greater efforts, perhaps in the cultural area,” he said.

Brazil’s diplomatic corps has long been made up of professionals of recognised capacity, but diplomacy has never been a priority in Brazilian politics, Marconini added.

However, that has begun to change in recent years, due to the opening of the national market and the forging of stronger economic ties with the outside world.

Brazil’s universities already have 33 international relations departments, representing a total of 15,000 students, up from just three in 1995. There are also eight graduate programmes and 16 research institutes in the area.

At the University of Sao Paulo, international relations was the fourth most popular major among students taking entrance exams this year, with almost 60 candidates applying for each spot. It was only surpassed by advertising, journalism and physical therapy.

These statistics provide a clear indication of the new interest the area of foreign relations has awakened among the young in a country seen up to now as introspective and not especially interested in international issues.