AB Again
09-03-2007, 20:43
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim signed a deal making ethanol an internationally traded commodity
source (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6434889.stm)
Since when did a deal have to be signed to make something an 'internationally traded commodity'. Does this mean that we can now open a futures market on ethanol?
My main concern is that it means that Brazil will be seen in the same light as the middle east - a supplier of energy resources and of strategic importance. Time to move on perhaps.
Proggresica
09-03-2007, 20:48
Speaking of which, just saw this on Google News:
Ethanol: Washington's biological weapon against Chavez
By Jan-Uwe Ronneburger Mar 9, 2007, 19:03 GMT
Sao Paulo/Buenos Aires - Until now there seemed to be no way to stem the growing influence across Latin America of left-wing populist Hugo Chavez, an outspoken critic of the United States.
But ethanol could hold the key to stopping the Venezuelan president and his efforts towards a leftist subcontinent.
This is at least, according to political analysts, one of the intentions of US President George W Bush, who on Friday moved his country closer to a deal with Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to cooperate in marketing and producing the biofuel ethanol.
The product made from sugar cane in Brazil and from corn in the United States appears almost like a 'biological weapon' against the oil money of populist Chavez.
Bush picked his words carefully in Sao Paulo. In an apparent but not explicit reference to Venezuela, he said it is in the interest of the United States that the countries in the region, and in Central America in particular, 'become energy producers, not remain dependent on others for their energy sources.'
The US president - who has been condemned internationally for his refusal to support the Kyoto accord on reducing carbon emissions - called himself a steward of the environment and said that biofuels are good to combat climate change.
For Brazil, in turn, ethanol production has an enormous economic potential. Billions of dollars of investment are already planned for the coming years, and the country hopes to attract additional US investment. Brazil and the US jointly produce over 70 per cent of the world's ethanol, although the South American country's is made out of sugar cane and the northern giant's out of the less energy-efficient corn.
Brazil currently produces 16 billion litres of ethanol per year, a majority of which is used as fuel for motor vehicles. Even petrol sold in the country includes an obligatory 23 per cent ethanol.
...
Source. (http://news.monstersandcritics.com/americas/features/article_1275189.php/Ethanol_Washingtons_biological_weapon_against_Chavez)
AB Again
09-03-2007, 21:01
I don't know where the journalist that wrote that piece for google news has been living for the last half a century, but he, or she, needs to do some serious background research before writing in the future.
Brazil has been producing ethanol for use as a petrol substitute/additive for more than 40 years now. The journalist does not mention that almost all new cars produced here have 'flex' engines that can run on gasoline or ethanol or any mixture of the two.
Ethanol production has absolutely nothing to do with being anti-Chavez (Bush may think it does, but he would be wrong), it has to do with being self sufficient in meeting our energy demands. Lula (our president) is from the 'Workers Party' (PT - Partido dos Trabalhadores) and is certainly, by any US perspective, almost a communist. Bush, however, is quite happy to deal with him, as the US appears to need Brazil's expertise.