Brazil to ‘actively’ boost farm exports: next foreign minister

Brazil is to throw its diplomatic muscle behind a push to “actively and systematically” increase exports from its huge farm sector, the country’s next foreign minister said yesterday. “Agriculture’s strength will be part of the project to increase Brazil’s power. At the same time, projecting the image of a country that is confident, big and strong will further serve agriculture’s interests,” Ernesto Araujo said in a series of tweets.

Araujo promised to inject a good dose of ideology into trade and Brazil’s dealings with other countries, while railing against the foreign policies of leftist leaders who ruled the country between 2003 and 2010. He also said a new agribusiness department would be created in his ministry. “New foreign policy: Brazil won’t stop exporting chicken and soya, beef and sugar, but will also move to export hope and freedom,” he said.

“The fact we are an agricultural power doesn’t stop us having ideas and fighting for them.” Araujo was a mid-ranking public worker in Brazil’s foreign ministry when far-right president-elect Jair Bolsonaro tapped him to become the country’s top diplomat. The new government takes office on January 1. The 51-year-old, who never held the post of ambassador, embodies Bolsonaro’s stance of encouraging business and foreign investment while downplaying the need to fight climate change or protect the environment.

The foreign policy inexperience of Bolsonaro and his team has been evident in rash rhetoric against China -- Brazil’s biggest trading partner -- and the president-elect’s promise -- hastily backpedalled -- to move Brazil’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Bolsonaro has repeatedly said that China “is buying Brazil.” But his country is doing very well in terms of increased soya exports to China after Beijing imposed a 25 percent tariff on US soybeans in retaliation for tariffs on Chinese goods ordered by US President Donald Trump.