China's growing pull puts Brazil in a bind

[bemildred]

SAO PAULO, Brazil — For 51 of its 52 years in business, brush and comb maker Escovas Fidalga was solidly profitable. Then last year, it plunged into the red. Ask boss Manolo Miguez why, and he fingers a culprit that would be familiar to many hard-pressed American manufacturers.

"Our biggest competition is Chinese imports. ... They started slowly, but today they take up 70% of the Brazilian market," says Miguez, the company director.

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China's sudden prominence in the Brazilian economy illustrates an emerging trend throughout Latin America. In a development that worries some in the U.S. Congress, Chinese executives and diplomats are fanning out in the USA's hemispheric backyard, signing deals and cultivating goodwill.

"China is expanding its investment down there. ... We have fallen a little bit behind the curve. China is very aggressive," says Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., who chairs the House Western Hemisphere subcommittee.

Irish Sun

[David__77]

1. Hey, that's capitalism.

Of course, contention over markets is what caused many wars between great powers. The US says, "How dare the Chinese sell goods at a better price than us!"

[fedsron2us]

2. The biggest myth in the modern world

is that a global capitalist economy will eliminate all conflict. It did not happen in the early 20th century prior to the First World War and it is not going to happen now. Sooner or later the competing national economies are going to come to blows over markets and resources. Indeed, such conflicts are probably more likely to lead us to our doom than any of the ideological posturing between the West and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

[bemildred]

3. What I thought was interesting is that the Bushites have caused

the demise of the Monroe Doctrine. Two hundred years,
and they trashed it in five, and purely by incompetence.