Obama, in Brazil, seeks to deepen Latam ties

Reuters/Brasilia

Anxious to boost jobs back home before the 2012 US presidential election, his visit to the region’s economic powerhouse is part of an effort to re-engage with neighbors where the US faces rising competition from China.

"I want to open more markets around the world so that American companies can do more business and hire more of our people,” Obama said in his weekly radio address yesterday.

He has stuck to itinerary of the five-day tour, which also takes in Chile and El Salvador, as world powers sought to protect civilians from Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and as Japan battles a nuclear crisis.

A news conference after his meeting with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was canceled at Brazil’s request, but the leaders will make remarks without taking questions.

The president, accompanied by first lady Michelle Obama, was greeted by a solemn arrival ceremony at the imposing Palacio do Planalto seat of government.

The gravity of the occasion was briefly interrupted, however, when a reporter for a Brazilian comedy show shouted, "Hey Michelle. Nice to meet you. We are Latin lovers.”

The trip was not expected to yield any major breakthroughs on trade barriers, an area where Washington and Brasilia have been at loggerheads in recent years.

It did, however, produce a series of preliminary agreements aimed at boosting trade and cooperation on issues ranging from space technology to joint development of aviation biofuels.

They also signed an "open skies” agreement that will allow US and Brazilian airlines to fly more routes between each country, as well as a general framework under which the US would help Brazil prepare for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games.

Also, a Brazilian government source told Reuters the US and Brazil will call for broad reform of the UN Security Council in a statement later on Saturday.

Brazil believes it deserves a permanent seat in light of its growing clout as an economic and diplomatic power and wants to enlist support from Obama, who backed a permanent seat for India when he visited New Delhi in November.

Washington had said it expected the UN to be discussed when the two met, but was vague on what level of support Obama would offer.

Obama is seeking to boost hemispheric ties that have become frayed at the edges but his attention is sure to be divided.

Senior aides will be with him at every stop to help him stay on top of events as the US works with allies against Gaddafi and monitors Japan’s nuclear crisis.

The White House has justified Obama’s trip in large part for its potential dividends of boosting US exports to help create American jobs.

Though Obama remains immensely popular in Brazil, some officials in the Rousseff administration voiced frustration in the run-up to the visit that Washington still does not give Latin America’s largest economy the attention it deserves.

Obama addressed those concerns in an interview with Brazilian news magazine Veja published yesterday, saying that the US welcomes Brazil’s rise on the global stage.

"One of the reasons we see Brazil’s rise in a positive light is that we share common values, like democracy and social inclusion,” Obama said, according to a Portuguese translation of his remarks.

But a blunt assertion by a senior Obama adviser this week that the trip was "fundamentally” about export promotion irritated some officials in Brazil, where many are proud of the South American giant’s increasing role on the world stage.

US officials have said Obama also wants to repair diplomatic ties since Rousseff took office in January. Tensions rose under former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva over, among other things, Brazil’s overtures to Iran.

Rousseff, a pragmatic leftist, has veered back toward Washington and away from anti-US leaders like Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez but she will likely insist on concrete results.