Just an hour's drive outside this traffic-choked metropolis where US President George W. Bush will kick off a Latin American tour on Thursday, sugarcane fields stretch for hundreds of kilometers, providing the ethanol that fuels eight out of every 10 new Brazilian cars.
In only a few years, Brazil has turned itself into the planet's undisputed renewable energy leader and the highlight of Bush's visit is expected to be a new ethanol "alliance" he will forge with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
The deal is still being negotiated, but the two leaders are expected to sign an accord on Friday to develop standards to help turn ethanol into an internationally traded commodity, and to promote sugar cane-based ethanol production in Central America and the Caribbean to meet rising international demand.
PHOTO: AP
Across Latin America's largest country, Brazilian media were billing the Bush-Silva meeting as a bid to create a new two-state"OPEC of ethanol," despite efforts by Brazilian and US officials to downplay the label amid concerns that whatever emerges would be viewed as a price-fixing cartel.
Meanwhile, political and energy analysts warned that any agreements reached between Brazil and the US were unlikely to have short-term effects.
And the deal itself could end up largely symbolic because of reluctance by Washington to address a key point of friction: a US$0.14 per-liter US tariff on Brazilian ethanol imports.
"For the Brazilians, the tariff has utmost priority," said Cristoph Berg, an ethanol analyst with German commodities research firm F.O. Licht.
"They will agree with developing biofuel economies around the world, but the first thing they will say is `We want to do away with that tariff," he said.
But no one is expecting Bush to give ground on the tariff.
The politically sensitive issue essentially subsidizes US corn growers who are rapidly ramping up ethanol production amid Washington's encouragement of renewable biofuels to ease US dependence on imported petroleum.
But the visit will help Bush and Lula join forces to promote the politically popular issue of renewable energy simply by gathering in a place where ethanol is king.
At every gas station in the city of 18 million, drivers can fill up with gasoline or ethanol. Ethanol came courtesy of a 1970s decision by former military dictators to subsidize production and require distribution at the pumps.
A 1980s Brazilian fad with cars that ran only on ethanol petered out when oil prices fell in the early 1990s.
But the fuel came back into vogue in 2003 when automakers started rolling out "flex-fuel" cars that run on gasoline, ethanol or any combination of the two.
With international oil prices reaching record highs, Brazilian drivers turned to the cars; most choose ethanol, because it costs about half as much as gas.
The ethanol industry is now making profits like never before amid heavy foreign investment.
Brazil is the world's top exporter, though US ethanol production still surpasses Brazil. Brazil, however, produces it more cheaply.
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
Proposed amendments would forbid the use of all personal electronic devices during school hours in high schools and below, starting from the next school year in August, the Ministry of Education said on Monday. The Regulations on the Use of Mobile Devices at Educational Facilities up to High Schools (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則) state that mobile devices — defined as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches or other wearables — should be turned off at school. The changes would stipulate that use of such devices during class is forbidden, and the devices should be handed to a teacher or the school for safekeeping. The amendments also say
EMBRACING TAIWAN: US lawmakers have introduced an act aiming to replace the use of ‘Chinese Taipei’ with ‘Taiwan’ across all Washington’s federal agencies A group of US House of Representatives lawmakers has introduced legislation to replace the term “Chinese Taipei” with “Taiwan” across all federal agencies. US Representative Byron Donalds announced the introduction of the “America supports Taiwan act,” which would mandate federal agencies adopt “Taiwan” in place of “Chinese Taipei,” a news release on his page on the US House of Representatives’ Web site said. US representatives Mike Collins, Barry Moore and Tom Tiffany are cosponsors of the legislation, US political newspaper The Hill reported yesterday. “The legislation is a push to normalize the position of Taiwan as an autonomous country, although the official US
CHANGE OF TONE: G7 foreign ministers dropped past reassurances that there is no change in the position of the G7 members on Taiwan, including ‘one China’ policies G7 foreign ministers on Friday took a tough stance on China, stepping up their language on Taiwan and omitting some conciliatory references from past statements, including to “one China” policies. A statement by ministers meeting in Canada mirrored last month’s Japan-US statement in condemning “coercion” toward Taiwan. Compared with a G7 foreign ministers’ statement in November last year, the statement added members’ concerns over China’s nuclear buildup, although it omitted references to their concerns about Beijing’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. Also missing were references stressing the desire for “constructive and stable relations with China” and
RSS