The pact enables the island’s firms to access more opportunities spanning enterprise partnerships, industrial cooperation and trade in Fecomercio’s home state of Santa Catarina in southern Brazil. It also underscores the growing strength of bilateral ties between Taiwan and the largest economy in Latin America, where large-scale local enterprises like Acer Inc., AsusTek Computer Inc., Compal Electronics Inc. and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. operate sales points or production bases.
TAITRA President and CEO Peter W. J. Huang said Santa Catarina is Brazil’s sixth biggest state in terms of economic output and boasts an array of industries ranging from information communications technology to textiles. “Partnering with Fecomercio makes sense as it is the most influential trade group in the state representing 70 industry groups comprising 46,000 companies.”
According to Huang, Brazil is Taiwan’s top partner in Latin America, with bilateral trade reaching US$3.05 billion in 2015. “But this market of 205 million consumers is yet to be fully tapped by Taiwan businesses,” he said, citing barriers like lengthy flight times—an issue partially addressed in early 2014 after Middle East carrier Emirates launched a Taiwan-Brazil service via Dubai.
TAITRA has signed 14 memorandums and trade pacts with Brazilian trade organizations since 1988, three of them in the first half of this year. The most recent was with Brazilian Association of Importers of Industrial Machinery and Equipment (Abimei) in May and Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (APEX-Brasil), the Brazilian government’s trade and investment promotion agency, in March.
As part of ongoing efforts promoting the image of Taiwan manufacturing in Brazil, TAITRA is staging a trade show featuring a selection of high-quality locally made products during the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. (OC-E)
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