Brazil Looks To Boost Trade With Russia Despite Sanctions

Brazil hopes to boost bilateral trade with Russia, and would not bow to calls to dissuade it from increasing its engagement with the country amid tough sanctions over Ukraine, a top Brazilian diplomat said Thursday.



"Our countries have a very big potential of mutual trade. Our entrepreneurs know each other very well and we expect our trade to grow," Antönio José Valim Guerreiro, Brazil's ambassador to Moscow said during a press conference in the Russian capital, ITAR-TASS reported.



With trade turnover between the two countries at US$5.65 billion in 2013, Russia is currently only Brazil's 19th most important trade partner. Ahead of the BRICS Summit, held in Brazil in July, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and her Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, restated their aim of doubling bilateral trade between the two countries to $10 billion annually.



Around 60 percent of Brazilian exports to Russia is currently meat and poultry, but sales are set to rise after Moscow authorized more Brazilian companies to supply their produce.



On Aug. 6, about 91 Brazilian meat companies were given the green light by Russian authorities, according to the Brazilian Minister for Agriculture and Livestock, Neri Geller, who called the news "an important step" that Brazil had to "take advantage of."



Nearly 140 Brazilian meat and poultry factories are now licensed to supply the Russian market, and Guerreiro said the Brazilian government had no leverage to influence or pressure them.



Brazil's poultry exporters say they stand to gain the most from Russia's proposal to boost supplies from Brazil following stiff sanctions from the European Union and the United States, and hope last year's 60 million tonnes could be boosted to 210 million tonnes, the equivalent of an additional $300 million.



July saw a year-on-year increase of 8.6 percent of beef sales to Russia, the Brazilian Association of Meat Exporting Industries said, according to the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper. Russia is the top destination for Brazilian beef and one of the country's top exports.



EU sanctions' "zero effect"



Guerreiro said that although it was "difficult to make forecasts" on increases to Brazilian exports to Russia, he was confident it would happen. 



The European Union and the United States have ratcheted up pressure on Russia in recent weeks over its alleged military involvement in Eastern Ukraine. 



It was rumored the EU would step up pressure on Latin countries, such as Brazil, to dissuade them from increasing trade with Russia and from taking advantage of the sanctions imposed.



A senior EU official told the Financial Times last week that the body would "be talking to the countries that would potentially replacing our exports to indicate that we would expect them not to profit unfairly from the current situation."



Guerreiro said, "No EU official has approached the leadership of Brazil with such an initiative of the sort yet," but that its effect, if it were to come, would be "equal to zero," RT reported.



Ecuador recently announced it would not be dictated to over which countries it could trade with, and Argentina said it was also set to boost trade with Russia, satisfying demand for fish, meat and processed foods covered by the punitive international restrictions.



Guerreiro said Brazil would also study prospects for supplying the Russian market with exotic fruits.



Apart from produce, the Brazilian ambassador highlighted the potential for both countries to further develop tourism.



Brazilians can travel to Russia without a visas, after mutual visa exemptions were signed into law in 2010. Guerreiro said 25,000 Russian tourists visited Brazil in 2012.



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