The Diplomat
The President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, yesterday expressed his desire to attract Spanish companies and expressed his confidence that there will be “good news this year” in the negotiations for the signing of a “balanced” trade agreement between Mercosur and the European Union.
During his speech at the Spain-Brazil Business Meeting, organized at Casa de América on the occasion of the Brazilian President’s visit to Madrid, President Lula assured that his government’s wish is to attract Spanish investment in his country once again and expressed his confidence that the infrastructure plan he plans to present in May will be attractive to foreign companies.
“We are working so that our partners can do business with all the necessary tranquility”, added Lula, who recalled in his speech the former president of Banco Santander, Emilio Botín, and the former president of Telefónica, César Alierta, who gave him their support when he took office for the first time in 2003, at a time when the business sector doubted Brazil’s economic future. He also assured that another of his government’s objectives is to ensure that Brazilian companies are able to invest in foreign markets so that they can become multinationals.
The Spain-Brazil Business Meeting was organized by the Spanish Chamber of Commerce, CEOE and ApexBrasil, and included, among its participants, the First Vice President and Minister of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, Nadia Calviño (who closed the event); the Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Héctor Gómez, who assured that “Brazil is a priority destination for our exports” and that Spanish companies generate in the country “170. 170,000 jobs”; and the Secretary of State for Trade, Xiana Méndez, who said that “Brazil is a priority destination for our exports” and that Spanish companies generate “170,000 jobs” in the country.
On the other hand, Lula assured that “Brazil and Mercosur partners are involved in the dialogue to conclude negotiations with the EU and we hope to have good news this year” during the Spanish Presidency of the EU. “Spain can help a lot in their conclusion. I hope that what was not achieved in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 will be achieved now,” he continued. “It is an important agreement for everyone and we want it to be balanced and to contribute to the reindustrialization of Brazil,” he added. Brazil currently holds the rotating presidency of Mercosur. For her part, Nadia Calviño assured that the EU-Mercosur agreement will be one of the “priorities” of the Spanish Presidency and indicated that negotiations could be concluded “definitively” in July.
Lula also assured that he maintains an “extraordinary” relationship with the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, with whom he will meet today at the La Moncloa complex, and announced that one of the objectives of his European tour (which began in Portugal) is to get “partners” for his proposal to create a group of countries to “bring peace, so that Ukraine stays with its territory and so that the Russians stay with Russia”. “We have to find a common denominator to reach peace,” he added. Moncloa sources indicated this week that the Spanish government maintains some differences, without specifying, with respect to Brazil’s proposal.
