UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi has concluded a visit to Brazil pursuing stronger economic ties and exploring investment opportunities in priority sectors.

Al Zeyoudi met Brazil’s trade, agriculture and tourism ministers at a time when non-oil bilateral trade between the two nations reached $4.3 billion in 2022, a growth of 32% in 2021.

Brazil is currently the UAE’s biggest trading partner in Latin America, and second only to the US in the whole of the Americas.

In Rio de Janiero, Al Zeyoudi, accompanied by Saleh Ahmad Salem Alzaraim Alsuwaidi, UAE Ambassador to the Federative Republic of Brazil, attended the launch of President Lula’s da Silva’s PAC, or Growth Acceleration Programme.

National investment initiative

The $347.5 billion national investment initiative will leverage public-private partnerships to support energy, logistics and urban infrastructure projects – and, importantly, restate the nation’s commitment to its environmental responsibilities.

The wide-reaching programme not only underlines the scope of the nation’s economic ambitions but presents a number of significant opportunities for UAE investors; the UAE already has in excess of $5 billion committed to the country, predominantly focused on the sectors outlined in the PAC initiative.

The minister’s participation in the event follows the state visit by President da Silva to Abu Dhabi in April, when he was received by His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, and discussed collaboration in technology, science and innovation, and the advancement of their respective sustainable development goals.

In-depth talks

In the nation’s capital Brasilia, Al Zeyoudi held a series of meetings with government ministers and senior officials. They included in-depth talks with Foreign Commerce Secretary Tatiana Prazeres, in which they reviewed bilateral trade volumes and explored ways to strengthen supply chains, and discussions with Minister of Tourism Celso Sabino on FDI opportunities in the sector and strategies for increasing visitor flows in both directions.

He also met Carlos Fávaro, Minister of Agriculture, reciprocating his visit to Dubai earlier in the month, and Suemi Mori, Deputy Chief of International Relations at the National Confederation of Agriculture, and Felipe Luis, its Commercial Intelligence Coordinator.

The UAE is one of the principal destinations in the Mena region for Brazil’s agricultural exports, in particular sugar, poultry, beef and maize, and the talks centered on development of value chains and sustainable production systems.

Important trade partner

Al Zeyoudi said: “Brazil is an increasingly important trade partner for the UAE, with 2022 experiencing robust growth in bilateral trade volumes. We also share an ambitious, pro-growth economic vision, one predicated on trade, inward investment and innovation, and believe we can support each other’s long-term, sustainable prosperity through deeper economic ties. Importantly, Brazil is one of the new centers of growth, one that represents the gravitational shifts in the economic landscape from the nations of the G7 towards new hubs of opportunity in the global south. The UAE is keen to build mutually beneficial partnerships with such economies and deliver dynamic new markets for our private sector.”

Al Zeyoudi concluded his visit to Brazil by meeting Maurício Lyrio, Secretary for Economic and Financial Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with responsibility for the nation’s negotiations with multilateral organizations such as the WTO and the OECD.

The pair discussed the Ministerial Conference (MC13) in Abu Dhabi in February 2024 and the UAE’s global trade agenda, which includes integration of trade technology tools, improved access to global supply chains for developing nations, and the improvement of dispute resolution mechanisms. 

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