Click button below to go to finance section, where there will be a slideshow on how much Brazil invests in the US compared to other countries
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Click Below to go to News section, where the second story will be on BRICS and Mozambique
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Soft Power and Aid
While Brazil isn't giving as many loans as China, the nation is still giving about $4 billion as of 2010 to help others, including instituting a program in Haiti which is getting mothers to take their children to school in exchange for free meals. These $4 billion expenditures are actually on par with Canada and Sweden, and is also a competition with China and India to spread soft power across the developing world. It is also part of the effort to get a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, which Brazil has been on an almost lonely quest for.
However Brazil has also been getting aid, and there have been some concerns that Brazil may get more aid than it gives. Yet, as long as Brazil is ensuring that China doesn't have dominance over the Third World there is no concern in the West for the most part. Brazil, however, sees some other implications; take ethanol for example. Brazil wants to create a global market, but no one would let Brazil into their markets if it's the only real provider, for it would become a monopoly and prices could go up. When Brazil goes into poorer countries, however, it spreads the ethanol market and also creates suppliers there. This therefore relates to market structure, as in perfect competition products are about the same and by many suppliers, and so this is what Brazil is aiming for in order to take itself higher in the global market. And so Brazilian aid may also be for gaining greater economic and a kind of imperial power, as seen in Brazilian Vale involvement with Mozambique.
However Brazil has also been getting aid, and there have been some concerns that Brazil may get more aid than it gives. Yet, as long as Brazil is ensuring that China doesn't have dominance over the Third World there is no concern in the West for the most part. Brazil, however, sees some other implications; take ethanol for example. Brazil wants to create a global market, but no one would let Brazil into their markets if it's the only real provider, for it would become a monopoly and prices could go up. When Brazil goes into poorer countries, however, it spreads the ethanol market and also creates suppliers there. This therefore relates to market structure, as in perfect competition products are about the same and by many suppliers, and so this is what Brazil is aiming for in order to take itself higher in the global market. And so Brazilian aid may also be for gaining greater economic and a kind of imperial power, as seen in Brazilian Vale involvement with Mozambique.