Just two weeks ago, Brazil's President Dilma Roussef made her way to Washington, D.C. to meet with President Obama. Mimi Whitfield of the Miami Herald writes in her April 6 article entitled "Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff prepares for Washington visit"(see http://tinyurl.com/7zzz23o) that devoid of the pomp and circumstance of a traditional state visit, this trip was directed towards business discussions that serve to follow up President Obama's trip to Brazil just last year. While it was not clear what specific topics would be on the agenda, the White House did state that Rousseff’s visit will be an opportunity to “continue efforts to grow commercial, economic, education and innovation ties’’between the two largest democracies in the Western hemisphere.
The article continued to outline its speculations regarding the topics that both parties involved could be interested in speaking about. Based on both Obama's previous visit as well as Rousseff's current track record, several main topics emerged. The most prominent, due to the economic situation that the U.S. is currently in, would be trade in Brazil. In recent years China has surpassed the U.S. as Brazil's main trading partner. Though China's goods have flooded the Brazilian market the quality of these goods has been criticized and has in some ways hurt the Brazilian economy. It is the hope of the U.S. to renegotiate their trade agreements with Brazil in order to show Brazilians that we provide a stable and willing market for their goods, and vice versa. In addition the important topic of visas will hopefully be discussed. As it stands now both countries have strict visa requirements for both Americans and Brazilians traveling from one country to the other. Supporters of ridding this policy have stated that not only would travelers be able to freely come and go as they please, but it was also promote and ease the burden of companies doing business in these countries. On a related note, the loosening of these travel restrictions would also benefit education initiatives supported by both Roussef and Obama that aim to provide exchange programs for students. These initiatives plan to "send 100,000 students from the United States to study in Latin America and bring 100,000 students from Latin America and the Caribbean to study in the United States." It is objective of these education initiatives to not only provide opportunities for these students, but to also share resources and strengthen partnerships within the hemisphere.
In conclusion, many speculate that this meeting will not only strengthen the ties between these two super powers, but will also hopefully result in the re-evaluation of the roles of each of these countries in the U.S.- Brazil relationship. As in many of the cases of U.S. foreign relations, the U.S. is perceived as the senior partner in these relationships. U.S. officials have stated these two countries should be perceived as equal partners. Many hope that a new understanding in the relationship between the U.S. and Brazil will provide the leverage to needed for new ties and agreements to flourish between these two great nations.
After reading this article I was very curious about the outcomes of this meeting and whether or not the topics that were presented in the Miami Herald article were actually discussed by President Roussef and Obama. I therefore followed up by reading an article printed shortly (April 9) after the meetings had finished. As per a brief issued by a White House correspondent entitled Obama: 'Enormous Progress' in US-Brazil Relationship (see http://tinyurl.com/7vemxa6) published in the Voice of America, Dan Robinson summarized the main interests that both President Roussef and Obama focused on during their discussions. As the Miami Herald had anticipated economic and trade ties were an important topic that dominated these meetings. However, President Obama concentrated on Brazil's image of a leader in bio-fuels and the U.S.'s own stance as a potential customer for Brazil's oil. President Roussef also recognized these opportunity for cooperation as well as promote production and export growth in her own country. In connection to the economy, global affairs were discussed in particular the international financial crisis. From the article, it was here that there appeared to be disagreements between the U.S. and Brazil in regards to tactics to stabilize the European debt crisis. President Roussef stated that she was concerned about certain monetary policies that were being drafted to resolve the problem that she thought could hurt both developed and developing nations. While the White House officials could not speak directly to President Obama's reaction to her statements, they emphasized that these concerns as well as others would be addressed at the sixth annual Summit of the Americas in just a few days.
Overall, after reading both of these articles I was struck by the how these two sources really shaped the stories that they presented. While they both recognized certain topics like trade and the economy as inevitable topics of discussion the rest of their presentation regarding these meetings were in line with their own opinions and objectives. For example, in the Miami Herald article the topic of visas took up a good portion of the article, probably equal to that of trade and the economy. Much of this stemmed from the fact that this is a particularly important topic in South Florida where hundreds of thousands of Brazilians visit every year. I can only imagine that this could also be linked to the number of international students that attend universities in the state of Florida. In comparison the article from Voice of America tended to stray away from particular issues about U.S.- Brazil relations that concerned particular groups and communities. Instead I felt that even less information was provided in this article and that much of it was politically correct rhetoric that did not speak to Obama's proclamation of "progress " between these two nations. It will be interesting to see how the "progress" in this relationship will show in the next few months or so, especially as Obama embarks on his re-election campaign. A reaffirmed relationship with Brazil could indeed affect how his foreign policy is perceived by voters, especially since much of it has been based on the improvement of the U.S. and global economy.
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