US Vice President Joe Biden began a three-day visit to Latin America’s biggest country yesterday to meet Brazilian Government and business leaders as Washington gears up for a state visit by President Dilma Rousseff later this year.
The trip, part of a week-long swing by Biden through South America and the Caribbean, comes as Brazil’s economy is slowly rebounding from a two-year lull following nearly a decade of sturdy growth.
The country, the world’s seventh largest economy, seeks more clout with the United States and other major economies that it increasingly sees as its peers.
After divergences over trade and the Middle East during the administrations of their predecessors, Rousseff and US President Barack Obama in recent years have gradually forged closer diplomatic ties in hopes that the two biggest economies in the Americas can increasingly become larger markets for one another.
Rousseff, however, has remained a vocal critic of loose US monetary policy, which she believes hurts Brazil’s economy by strengthening Brazil’s currency and thus making Brazilian products more expensive abroad.
Nevertheless, the two countries have made incremental progress in commercial areas ranging from agriculture to energy to aviation and space technology.
In recent weeks, leaders of major US and Brazilian companies involved in trade between the two countries have been lobbying both governments to work on more of the small agreements that over time could add up to wholesale progress for bilateral business.
“Everybody’s looking for building blocks to bring the countries closer together,” said one US official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The strengthening ties between the two countries is underscored by an expected state visit by Rousseff to Washington in October, the first by a Brazilian leader in two decades. While Rousseff has already been on official business to the United States as President, the full state visit will last longer and involve more and closer diplomacy.
Biden’s visit began in Rio de Janeiro, where he was to address local authorities and business executives and tour a research facility operated by state-run energy company Petroleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras.