R$100 real note front
China and Brazil have created a work group to study the possibility of implementation of a bilateral trade program in their respective currencies, in replacement of the North American dollar, said a source in the Central Bank of Brazil.
“The negotiations are still in an initial phase, with a work group having been created with representatives of Brazil and China, who also met during the G-20 summit, in London,” explained a source.
The next step should be the visit of a Central Bank of Brazil delegation to China, “despite there being no forecast as to when it may come true,” said the source.
The work group should analyze the “results to be reached through an agreement that China recently established with Argentina” - the first country in South America to benefit from trade exchanges in the same currency with the Asian giant and with whom Brazil has also been developing the same program since September 2008.
The Central Banks of China and Brazil are also going to develop a “study of the potential bilateral trade volume to analyze the possibility of an agreement.”
The president of the Central Bank of Brazil, Henrique Meirelles, recently explained that the agreement with China should, essentially, benefit small exporters, on allowing for lower costs, whereas the large exporters should continue using the American dollar.
The negotiations began in June, after president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva launched the proposal during a visit to China, in May, with the objective of expanding bilateral trade and reducing the dependence on the dollar in trade exchanges.
Up to now, just companies in the 10 countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are authorized to promote their trade exchanges in renminbi (or yuan) with companies in five cities in China, as well as Hong Kong and Macao, under a pilot program that began in July and involves a total of 400 companies.
In April, China overtook the United States and became the main Brazilian trade partner, also becoming the main destination for the country’s exports, especially iron, oil, grain and pulp.
Lusa
Leave a Reply