Brazil’s president has blasted the monstrous role of the US dollar in the global economy during a formal visit to China after the two nations forged a recent pact to replace the dollar with their own currencies in trade deals.
"Why should every country have to be tied to the dollar for trade? Who decided the dollar would be the world's currency?" asked President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at a Thursday ceremony in China’s largest city and global financial hub, Shanghai, to inaugurate his political ally Dilma Rousseff as president of the New Development Bank set up by the BRICS member nations -- Brazil, China, Russia, India and South Africa.
"Why can't a bank like the BRICS bank have a currency to finance trade between Brazil and China, between Brazil and other BRICS countries? Today, countries have to chase after dollars to export, when they could be exporting in their own currencies," added visiting Lula, who is currently touring China aiming to further expand ties with his country’s top trading partner.
The 77-year-old president, who is due to meet with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing on Friday, intends to reposition Brazil as a global go-between and deal broker, spreading a message that "Brazil is back" as a key player on the global stage.
Lula’s administration declared last month that China and Brazil had reached a deal to trade in their own currencies, ditching the US dollar as an intermediary.
Under the currency deal, Brazil and China named two banks – one in each country – to conduct their massive trade and financial transactions by directly exchanging yuan for reais and vice versa, rather than going through the dollar.
China is Brazil's biggest trading partner, with a record $150.5 billion in bilateral trade last year.....more below
