EsWhile much of the focus in trade deals has been on what the new U.S. administration may do, elsewhere multilateral dealmaking continues. One notable area is activity by the Mercosur group, with Brazil’s Foreign Minister Aloysio Nunes saying deals with Canada, India, South Korea and Japan are all possible in the next 18 months Bloomberg reports. This comes on the heels of South Korea signing a free trade deal with five central American countries that it finalized negotiating last October.
Panjiva’s analysis of Brazil’s top 100 exports to Canada, India, South Korea and Japan compared to its global total shows significant opportunities for expansion. In the case of Canada its trade patterns are very similar to Brazil’s total with the exception of meat aside from poultry. For South Korea and Japan trade is very narrowly focussed on poultry, suggesting there are opportunities in other forms of agriculture as well as building materials. Exports to India feature very little agriculture, and are quite narrow outside of wood and other building materials.
Source: Panjiva
New trade deals, either bilaterally or as part of Mercosur negotiations, will presumably look to boost exports of ‘under-represented’ products. If each product moved up to Brazil’s average proportionally, without any drops in existing supplies, (eg more agricultural products to India without a loss of building material supplies) there could at least be a 2.6% increase in Brazil’s global exports of its top 100 product lines. The most relevant growth opportunities lie in growth of agriculture (especially meat outside of poultry), building materials (including stonework and ceramics) and wood products.
Source: Panjiva
