U.S., Brazil begin talks on distilled spirts

{mosads}In 2011, Brazil was the eighth-largest goods trading partner with the United States with $74 billion in total goods trade. The U.S. goods trade surplus with Brazil was $12 billion.

President Obama is meeting with Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff at the White House on Monday to discuss strengthening the relationship between the two nations.

“The potential is enormous and the obstacles for an agreement, while very real, could be overcome by leaders determined to do so,” said Moises Naim, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in a Financial Times column on Sunday.

Naim has been pressing for a broader trade deal between the U.S. and Brazil for more than a decade.

“A broad, ambitious deal can disrupt current trends where the U.S. risks not becoming a major beneficiary of Brazil’s continuing economic success and Brazil risks being at odds with a geopolitical power whose support it needs if it wants to be an influential global player,” he wrote.

Naim said talks are unlikely to result in any larger agreement.

“Unfortunately, unless Rousseff and Obama disrupt the status quo in their countries’ relationship, this will continue to be a story of missed opportunities, in which minor agreements are extolled as epic changes while, in practice, the two nations continue to fail to forge a world-changing alliance,” he wrote.

The Treasury Department will publish a notice of proposed rulemaking that will solicit comments from the public.