Brazil’s President Lula will visit China alongside a record number of businesspersons

Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will arrive in China, next Sunday (March 26), for the most significant state visit – so far – of his third term as president. Lula will be accompanied by a delegation of hundreds of businesspersons, alongside governors, congressmen and ministers. The agenda will include visits, bilateral talks, official events and signing of various agreements.

The Brazilian government’s goal is to relaunch Brazil’s relations with China – its main trade partner since 2009. In 2022, China imported over USD 89.7 billion in Brazilian products – especially soybean and ore –, and exported almost USD 60.7 billion to Brazil. The value of this trade – USD 150.4 billion – has increased 21 times since Lula’s first visit to China in 2004.

Presently, Brazil is the main exporter of agricultural products to China. This week, the trade of beef is restarting after a short ban for phytosanitary reasons. More than 100 businesspersons from Brazil’s agricultural sector will be part of the entourage accompanying President Lula.

The agenda will also include important topics such as tourism between the two countries, and investments. Moreover, Brazilian programs to combat hunger, to protect the environment and towards sustainable development may once again be considered a reference by the Chinese government.

At least 20 bilateral agreements are expected to be signed during the visit. One of them is for construction of CBERS-6, the 6th of a series of satellites built together by Brazil and China. This new model’s technology will allow Brazilian biomes such as the Amazon Rainforest to be monitored even on cloudy days.

SCHEDULE — The main diplomatic events of the visit will take place on March 28 in Beijing, when Lula will meet with China's President Xi Jinping; with Prime Minister Li Qiang; and with National People’s Congress Chairman Zhao Leji. The bilateral agenda will include trade, investment, reindustrialization, energy transition, climate change, cooperation and peace agreements.

On March 29 there will be a business event promoted by the Sino-Brazilian High Level Commission (Comissão Sino-Brasileira de Alto Nível de Concertação e Cooperação/COSBAN) and by Brazil’s Ministry of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services (Ministério de Desenvolvimento, Indústria, Comércio e Serviços/MDICS), and attended by over 240 Brazilian businesspersons. An event by the Brazilian Center for International Relations (Centro Brasileiro de Relações Internacionais/Cebri) will be held on March 27, to be attended by around 100 businesspersons.

On March 30, in Shanghai, President Lula will visit the headquarters of the New Development Bank, established by the BRICS (Brazil, China, India, Russia and South Africa) economic bloc to advance projects in developing countries.

RELAUNCHING BILATERAL RELATIONS — The visit is part of the new Brazilian government’s efforts towards reconstructing its international relations – also including the recent visits to Argentina, where the Celac meeting took place; to Uruguay; and to the US, as well as meetings with European leaders who came to Lula’s inauguration in January. It will also be Lula’s first visit to a country in the East.

The Brazilian President will also be the first head of state to be received by Xi Jinping since the latter was re-elected by the National People’s Congress this month.

This will be Lula’s third official visit to China. The relationship between the two countries has become closer – and trade has increased in a continuous and sustained way – since 2004, when President Lula first visited Beijing. In 2009 he visited China for the second time.

BUSINESS PARTNERS —  2023 is the 50th anniversary of trade relations between Brazil and China, which began in 1973. Diplomatic relations between China and Brazil officially began the following year.

In 2022, soybeans were the main product exported from Brazil to China (36% of all exports) – followed by iron ore (20%) and crude oil (18%). Exports changed slightly in January and February 2023, with crude oil in the lead at 23%, followed by soybeans (22%) and iron ore (21%).

Trade with China was leveraged during Lula’s first two terms as president. In 2003 – his first year in office – the exports of Brazil to China were only USD 4.5 billion, and imports, USD 2.1 billion, a total trade value of USD 6.6 billion.

In the last year of Lula’s second term, 2010, exports had increased 582%, to USD 30.7 billion; imports rose to USD 25.6 (an 1,100% increase), for a total trade value of USD 56,3 billion (a 753% increase).