Guyana, Brazil negotiating cargo by land agreement
Stabroek News
August 21, 2002
Guyana and Brazil are in the final stages of negotiations on an agreement for the transportation of cargo by land which should be ready before the end of the year.
In addition, details and amendments to the Partial Scope Agreement between Guyana and Brazil to ensure compliance with the CARICOM-founding Treaty of Chaguaramas are being finalised with the concurrence of all the relevant parties. This agreement is expected to become operational before year end as well and full implementation will guarantee market accessibility for local products.
Minister of Foreign Trade and International Cooperation, Clement Rohee and Brazilian Ambassador to Guyana, Ney Do Prado Dieguez made these announcements at the opening session of the two-day seminar `Doing Business with Brazil’ at Le Meridien Pegasus Hotel yesterday.
The seminar, which attracted a large gathering of persons from the business and public sector in Guyana, is being sponsored by the ministry, the Brazilian Embassy and the Private Sector Commission.
According to Dieguez, the passenger and cargo agreement will grant access to vehicles of both countries on either side of the border, to facilitate bilateral trade and tourism.
Rohee also announced that the local Institute of Private Enterprise Development (IPED) will soon conclude an agreement with its Roraima, Brazil counterpart, SEBRAE. Rohee said that the Department of Foreign Trade in the Brazilian Foreign Ministry was willing to provide technical assistance and he would pursue the offer.
To complement the activities being carried out by the Guyana mission in Brazil, he said, a consulate had been established in the State of Roraima, which he hoped would assist businessmen and small traders.
In his opening address, Dieguez said that the physical integration of Guyana and Brazil remained the main priority.
The construction of the bridge over the Takutu River to link Guyana and Brazil, “though temporarily interrupted,” he said, continued to be a firm commitment of the Brazilian government. The presence of senior ranking government officials of the State of Roraima, he said, was testimony of this commitment.
Technical cooperation between the two countries, for which three pacts were recently signed would have the effect of ensuring food security in Guyana and possibly meet some of Brazil’s market needs.
Apart from the partial scope agreement, Dieguez said that business with Brazil, would also transcend bilateral limits allowing Guyanese products to flow into continental trade because of a trade and investment agreement signed between MERCOSUL and Guyana in Rio De Janeiro in June 1999.
He noted that Brazil’s Foreign Trade in 2001 amounted to US$113 billion with exports amounting to US$58 billion and imports to US$55 billion.
As a global trader, he said that Brazil has established balanced and well distributed partnerships with four economic blocs — the European Union accounting for 26% of Brazil’s foreign trade; the USA, 24%; India, Asia, Africa and `Australasia’, 22%; and the Latin America Integration Movement, 20% with half of its trade coming from within MERCOSUL.
The Caribbean Community and Central American markets are among the smaller markets with CARICOM accounting for only 0.34% of Brazil’s foreign trade. In exchanges with member states, Guyana ranks sixth, behind St Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Barbados and the Bahamas.
He said that Brazil and CARICOM countries converge at international fora such as the World Trade Organisation, the EU, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Free Trade Area of the Americas and at the upcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development, where interests as developing countries were being discussed and “quite often challenged” the Brazilian government will do all within its powers to better negotiate with the sub-region.
Among those making presentations, which generated many questions and comments, were Director of the Department of Resources and Planning, Dr Luis Vasconcelos who made a presentation on Physical Integration Perspectives for Brazil and Guyana; Chief Executive Officer, Guyana Office for Investment, Geoffrey Da Silva on GUYEXPO 2002 - The Call to El Dorado’; and acting Director-General in the Ministry of External Relations of Brazil, Carlos Teixeira who looked at ‘Business Opportunities between Brazil and Guyana’. (Miranda La Rose)