Economy & Trade, Headlines, Latin America & the Caribbean

SOUTH AMERICA: Summit with Arab Countries to Focus on Trade Ties

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 9 2005 (IPS) - Some 9,000 soldiers and police will be deployed around the Brazilian capital over the next few days to provide security for the first-ever summit between South American and Arab leaders, aimed at bolstering cooperation as well as economic and trade ties between the two regions.

Monday’s meeting of foreign ministers and the two-day Summit of South American-Arab Countries, which opens Tuesday, have the political objective of strengthening "South-South" dialogue and the position of the developing South on the international scene, although the main focus will be economic questions, the secretary-general of the Arab-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, Michel Alaby, told IPS.

"We are sending the rest of the world a message that two regions can work together in a positive manner," said Pedro Motta, director of the Brazilian Foreign Ministry’s Africa department.

"We have no plans to try to fix the world’s problems," he added, alluding to the concerns expressed by Israel and other countries with regard to the summit’s political intentions.

In terms of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Brasilia declaration, to be signed by the leaders, goes no further than supporting resolutions that have already been approved by the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council, said the diplomat.

In the past few weeks, several media outlets had reported that the draft declaration condemned Israel for its continued occupation of Palestinian territories.

The Brazilian government has also announced that Foreign Minister Celso Amorim will visit Tel Aviv, where he will directly inform Israeli authorities of the outcome of the summit.

"We also owe a great deal to Israel, because it has had a strong influence on our culture, our literature, and our politics," said the foreign minister.

Amorim also said Monday that South America’s political and economic reforms could serve as a positive example for the Arab world – reportedly one of the reasons that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice praised the summit in her meeting with the foreign minister on a recent visit to the Brazilian capital.

According to Amorim, Rice pointed out that the United States has been calling for social, political and economic reforms in the Arab world, and that reforms carried out in Brazil and other countries of South America could be an example to follow.

Brazilian officials also said the differences between South America’s democratic governments and the absolute monarchies or authoritarian political systems in some Arab countries should not stand in the way of increased cooperation and closer ties between the two regions.

In addition, Amorim played down criticism by the local press on the glaring absence of important leaders who had previously been expected to attend the summit, such as the kings of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Morocco, and presidents Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, and Bashar Assad of Syria.

Saudi Arabia will be represented by Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, who has held that post for three decades, Jordan will send a member of the royal family, and the Moroccan delegation will be headed by Foreign Minister Mohamed Benaissa.

"Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister is not a simple mortal, like me, who can be dismissed. He is the king’s son, and has power that goes beyond the post he holds," argued Amorim.

Presidents Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria, Jalal Talabani of Iraq, Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian National Authority, Néstor Kirchner of Argentina, Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and Tabaré Vázquez of Uruguay have confirmed their plans to attend, as have more than 60 government ministers, including foreign ministers, from both regions.

To expand trade and investment between South America and the Middle East, a meeting of business leaders is being held Monday through Wednesday in Brasilia parallel to the summit, and an investment fair will promote mutual understanding and familiarity and identify concrete business opportunities.

Hundreds of private and public enterprises are taking part in the various business gatherings, to identify the main obstacles to stronger commercial ties and create a network of business contacts.

In addition, the business representatives will take part in a seminar on the business cultures of the two regions, trends, investment flows and prospects for increasing tourism.

The organisers expect concrete results to come out of the summit, including a final agreement for regular daily flights between Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), to begin next December.

A trade agreement may also be signed by the Southern Common Market (Mercosur – made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) and the Gulf Cooperation Council (Bahrein, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE).

South America still has a weak foothold in the Middle East, where its exports account for less than 3.5 percent of the region’s 239 billion dollars in total imports, said Alaby.

But that proportion could increase significantly thanks to food exports to oil-rich Arab countries.

South American nations, especially Brazil, can also sell a large variety of manufactured products like vehicles, spare parts, furniture and footwear, he added.

Lawmaker Jamil Murad, executive secretary of the Brazil-Arab Parliamentary Friendship League, said the summit will be "multifaceted", with economic as well as political dimensions, aimed at fomenting broad cooperation to boost development.

The summit forms part of "Brazil’s new foreign policy, which seeks to form blocs to escape the orbit of the United States, which would like a servile Brazil," said Murad.

Trade between Brazil and the 22 countries of the Arab League has been growing fast in recent years, reaching 8.19 billion dollars in 2004, a 50 percent increase on the 2003 level.

Brazil’s exports to the Arab world totalled more than four billion dollars in 2004, up 46 percent from 2003, while its imports from these countries grew 54 percent, to 4.1 billion dollars.

But the flow of trade is irregular. In the case of exports from Arab nations, which mainly involve oil, gasoline and jet fuel, there are many ups-and-downs, depending on oil prices and imports by Brazil, which vary in volume and origin.

Brazil, meanwhile, mainly exports food products like beef and sugar, and industrial goods like steel, cars and spare parts, and exports have risen more steadily.

The search for closer ties was not on this occasion motivated by oil, which is abundant in both regions, but by the search for expanded opportunities for trade, investment and scientific and technological cooperation.

Several events held parallel to the summit, like photography and film exhibits, will highlight the influence of Arab immigrants in South America, which is home to around 17 million people of Arab descent, 12 million of whom live in Brazil, according to Alaby, who is himself a Brazilian Arab.

The photos from 10 South American countries will showcase the Arab influence in architecture, customs, cuisine and daily life in nations like Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador.

The Arab countries that are sending delegations to the summit organised by the Brazilian government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva are: Algeria, Bahrein, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela are the participating South American nations.

There is already interest in a second summit, which would be held in a country in the Arab world.

* With additional reporting by Walter Sotomayor.