BRAZIL President goes to China in hopes of boosting exports

The nation's economic performance is the worst in a decade.
SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) -- With a huge entourage of government and business leaders in tow, Brazil's president headed to China on Friday in a bid to boost exports to a fast growing market and turn around the shaky Brazilian economy.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva left Brazil on a five-day state visit to Beijing and Shanghai accompanied by seven Cabinet members, five governors and more than 300 executives angling to do more business with China. An eighth cabinet member -- Finance Minister Antonio Palocci -- is already in China.
In a speech televised this week to mark his first 500 days in office, Silva said the trip would be one of the most important of his presidency.
"Brazil cannot and will not lose this opportunity, because increasing exports for countries that are big buyers, like China, is one of the most secure ways to increase our domestic growth," Silva said.
Poor performance
Silva is struggling to turn around South America's largest economy after it contracted 0.2 percent during his first year in office in 2003 -- the worst performance in more than a decade.
But exports to China are one of the few bright spots in the Brazilian economy. Silva, Brazil's first elected leftist leader, hopes to build on that success to create millions of jobs in a country where one in five of the country's 178 million people survive on less than $1 a day.
Led by soy, iron ore and pulp, Brazilian exports to China nearly tripled to $1.2 billion in 2003 from $415 million in 2002. So far in 2004, exports are running another 32 percent ahead of the previous-year level.
China is Brazil's third-largest trade partner after the United States and Argentina, but Brazilian officials hope it will take over the No. 2 spot this year.
Finished products
Brazil wants to increase exports of finished products ranging from furniture to cosmetics, precious gems, software and medical equipment, Development Minister Luis Fernando Furlan said in an interview this week with foreign correspondents.
Furlan expects Brazilian exports to China to jump tenfold in the next few years as shipments shift to products of higher aggregate value aimed at the Chinese consumer market.