FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, April 9, 2012
CONTACT OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS
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Secretary Bryson welcomed Brazilian President Rousseff during Forum
U.S. Commerce Secretary John Bryson today co-chaired the U.S.-Brazil CEO Forum meeting, along with Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Adviser for International Economic Affairs Michael Froman, Fernando Pimentel, Brazil’s Minister of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, and Gleisi Hoffmann, Brazil’s Presidential Chief of Staff.
“I was honored to co-chair the U.S.-Brazil CEO Forum and look forward to continued efforts to strengthen our economic relationship,” said Bryson. “The role of the private sector in strengthening the commercial relationship with Brazil is critical to achieving the goals of the President’s National Export Initiative.”
The U.S.-Brazil CEO Forum is comprised of 24 CEOs from the United States and Brazil and comes together to provide joint recommendations to the two governments on ways to strengthen the U.S.-Brazil economic relationship and advance bilateral trade. This was the seventh meeting of the Forum, and Secretary Bryson announced that he will travel to Brazil for the next meeting this year.
Secretary Bryson joined President Obama in welcoming Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff to the U.S. “Already, we are achieving key goals in our economic relationship, and there are opportunities for greater collaboration in areas such as trade and investment, infrastructure, strategic energy, education and innovation,” Bryson added. “None of our progress together is possible without the remarkable leadership of President Rousseff.”
During the Brazilian presidential visit, the two governments also signed the Aviation Partnership Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), a joint priority of the Forum. The Aviation Partnership MOU will provide a coordinated and structured vehicle between the U.S. and Brazilian aviation sectors to address mutual aviation priorities, share expertise on industry best practices, enhance technical capacity and develop technology solutions to aviations sector challenges, among other priorities.
Achievements of the Forum also include progress on visa reform, the Agreement of Trade and Economic Cooperation (ATEC) signed last year, and greater cooperation on energy seen with the U.S.-Brazil Strategic Energy Dialogue launched in August, 2011. The Forum also expressed support for President Obama’s 100,000 Strong in the Americas initiative and President Rousseff’s Science Without Borders program.
The Forum support’s President Obama’s National Export Initiative (NEI) goal to double U.S. exports by the end of 2014. Brazil is a key market under NEI, as the United States’ eighth-largest trading partner with $74.3 billion in bilateral merchandise trade in 2011.
