Sao Paulo — Brazil, together with its Mercosur partners, has opened new trade talks with major growth markets including India and the United Arab Emirates as part of a push to diversify exports following progress on the EU agreement. Tatiana Prazeres, Secretary of Foreign Trade at Brazil’s Ministry of Development, Industry, Trade and Services, told reporters ahead of a Brasilia panel that implementation of the EU deal should encourage broader engagement with other partners. Negotiations are underway to broaden the existing Mercosur-India arrangement, and fresh discussions with the UAE have also begun. Officials say the moves aim to deepen Mercosur’s global ties, expand export opportunities and reduce reliance on traditional markets; emerging economies like India and the UAE are attractive because of their growth, consumption potential and investment prospects. Prazeres cautioned that Brazil remains wary of trade with the United States given what she described as a volatile and hard-to-predict US tariff policy. Brazilian exports face average US tariffs of about 10 percent, with higher duties on certain goods such as steel under Section 232. While conditions have improved since last year’s sharp tariff increases, she and other officials emphasized the need for steady dialogue with Washington to navigate a fluid and uncertain global trade environment.
