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Brazil: United States
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Brazil is a leading exporter of fruit juices, mostly frozen concentrated orange juice (FCOJ), grape juice concentrate and tropical juices (pineapple, guava, passion fruit, etc.). In 1998, Brazil exported approximately US$1.3 billion in fruit juices, mostly FCOJ. The market opportunity in Brazil for fruit and vegetable juices is growing. However, in 1997 Brazil imported US$14 million in juices, mostly citrus, grape, peach and vegetable mixes. The U.S. market share is growing but the market is primarily dominated by Argentina and Chile. According to local importers, the United States has the potential to export vegetable juices and mixes to Brazil, but needs to overcome the lack of product awareness.
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Brazil's second most populous region is the Northeast region, from Maranhao in the north down to Bahia (the most African of Brazilian states). The architecture of cities like Recife and Salvador (Portuguese colonial capital, 1549-1763) shows an earlier age of plantation wealth, but today this is a poor region subject to devastating droughts. Millions have left here for jobs in the Southeast. However, tourism has begun to boom due to sunny weather, samba music, and soft sand beaches.
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Children in northern Brazil are routinely beaten by police and detained in abusive conditions, Human Rights Watch charged in a new report released today. The release comes on the 100th day of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's administration. Children face violence at the hands of other youths, are unnecessarily confined to their cells for lengthy periods of time, and often do not receive the schooling to which the Brazilian constitution entitles them, Human Rights Watch said. Brazil is a federation of states, much like the United States, and each state controls its own juvenile detention system. But the federal government has a key role in enforcing the national juvenile justice law. And the federal government can condition its funding of state juvenile detention systems on their compliance with human rights norms.
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Brazil made a radical change in 1975, when it opted for nuclear technology from West Germany, despite strong protests from the United States. The agreement, signed on June 27, called for West Germany to transfer eight nuclear reactors (each of which could produce 1,300 megawatts), a commercial-scale uranium enrichment facility, a pilot-scale plutonium reprocessing plant, and Becker "jet nozzle" enrichment technology. West Germany's Kraftwerk Union, an affiliate of Siemens, was hired to construct the power plants. The projected cost of the program was US$4 billion, to be paid over a fifteen-year period. The most important element of the agreement was that it called for the first-ever transfer of technology for a complete nuclear fuel cycle, including enrichment and reprocessing. The United States government opposed the accord vigorously.
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In spite of Brazil’s size, the broad pattern of climate is less varied than might be expected. The equator passes through northern Brazil, running adjacent to the Amazon River. Because of its equatorial location and low elevation, the extensive Amazon region has a climate with high temperatures and substantial rainfall. Farther to the south, temperatures become slightly more moderate. The state of Rio Grande do Sul in the extreme south exhibits a more temperate climate, with seasonal weather patterns resembling those of the southern United States. Rainfall is plentiful in Brazil, except in the sertão, a semiarid region of the Northeast that is subject to occasional droughts.
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Brazil is governed by the 1988 constitution. Under its terms, authority is vested in the president, who is elected for four years by universal suffrage. Under a 1997 amendment, the president may be reelected once. There is a bicameral legislature consisting of an upper federal senate and a lower chamber of deputies. The 81 senators are elected for eight years and the 513 deputies are elected for four years. The president may unilaterally intervene in state affairs.
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