China OVERTAKES the US as Brazil's Largest Trading Partner
China has become Brazil's most-important trading partner, disrupting a relationship between the United States and the Latin country that stretches back to the 1930s.
By Malcolm Moore in Shanghai
Last Updated: 6:28PM BST 09 May 2009
Welber Barral, the Brazilian trade minister, said total trade between Brazil and China had amounted to $3.2bn (£2.14bn) in April, representing a near twelve-fold increase since 2001.
The sum was greater than the $2.8 billion of imports and exports to the US and represented the second consecutive month that China had topped the trade table.
"It is a historic moment," he said, adding that he expected China to remain in pole position for the rest of the year because its economy is still growing healthily. "China is now a platinum account [for Brazil]," said Douglas Smith, a Latin American economist for Standard Chartered bank.
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