US Snubs Brazil

When the President of the United States, Barack Obama, received Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff at the White House on April 9, it is probable that both leaders said relations between their countries were better than ever. But this should not be taken at face value, because there is a growing tension between both sides.

Brazilian officials are offended because in spite of Brazil’s rise as an emerging global power, the White House has not conceded “state visit” status to Rousseff’s trip, the highest level of diplomatic distinction. State visits generally include a formal dinner at the White House, a formal speech from the visiting leader before Congress and a series of high profile cultural events.

The White House’s explanation was that, as this is an election year in the United States, Obama does not concede state visits. But the Brazilian press quickly took note that the British prime minister, David Cameron, had been on a state visit to the United States two weeks before Rousseff’s visit.

A recent article from the daily “O Estado de S. Paulo” (titled: “Dilma Will be Received by Obama Without the Honors of a State Visit”) pointed out that the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, and the prime minister of India, Manmohan Singh, made state visits to Washington in 2011 and 2009, respectively. Although the article does not mention it, the Mexican president, Felipe Calderon, had his in 2010.

“95 percent of international relations content is symbolic, and state visits are important,” said Peter Hakim, from the investigation institute Inter-American Dialogue, in a conference celebrated on March 12 at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington D.C. “Brazil wants this to have been a state visit, and they have felt insulted.”

Carl Meacham, a consultant from the Republican minority on the Senate Committee of Foreign Affairs, said at that same conference that the handling of Rousseff’s visit on behalf of Obama’s government reflects the fact that, “Brazil is not considered by the White House as a subject of first or second level for American foreign policy.”

Beyond diplomatic refinement, other subjects exist that are making bilateral tensions grow:

– Brazilians are disconcerted by the unexpected decision of the United States Air Force to cancel a $355 million contract to buy 20 military planes from the Brazilian Aeronautics company Embraer, claiming technical problems with the documents presented by the company. The contract had been objected to by a competing firm, Hawker Beechcraft.

– Brazilian officials are worried by a recent decision of the Florida Legislature that prohibits local governments from contracting companies that do business with Cuba, something that could impede the Brazilian company Odebrecht from constructing a $700 million hotel complex in the Miami International Airport area.

– Brazilians have been irritated for a while by the fact that when Obama visited India in 2010, he publicly supported India’s request to obtain a permanent seat on the Security Council of the United Nations. On the other hand, when Obama went to Brazil last year, he only expressed his “recognition” that Brazil wanted to occupy a permanent bench on the Security Council.

– At the same time, American officials are frustrated by Brazil’s support for some of the worst dictators in the world, especially Iran.

Although United States officials have a better opinion of Rousseff than of her predecessor, Lula, they remained upset when, during his recent visit to Cuba, Rousseff criticized the human rights abuses perpetrated in the American base of Guantanamo, but did not say a word about the human rights abuses in Cuba.

My opinion: The fact that Rousseff continues forward with her visit to Washington despite not having been conceded the status of state visit demonstrates that she is anxious to improve relations with the United States. She knows that, to grow continuously, Brazil needs to depend less on its exports of raw materials to China and increase its exports of manufactured products to the United States.

Obama’s government should also swallow its pride and treat Brazil with the same respect that it treats Russia, India or South Africa, whose foreign policies are usually more objectionable than that of Brazil. Obama should openly criticize Brazil for its support of Iran, Syria, Cuba and other totalitarian regimes, but treat it with the same respect as it does other emerging powers. Washington and Brasilia mutually need each other more than they believe.