Brazil and China have been maintaining informal trade since 1949. There was a boom in bilateral trade
in the 1990s and in early 2000, as Brazil and China formalized an agreement in which China would be
supported for a membership position at WTO in exchange for its reduction of some existing tariffs on
imports from Brazil [4]. The adoption of a free-floating trade regime by Brazil also promoted an increase in
trade.
Over the past decade, bilateral trade between Brazil and China has continued to grow considerably (Figure
4). In 2009, China was the destination of US$20.2 billion of Brazilian exports, most of this in the form
of non-processed agricultural and mineral products. In 2009, China surpassed the US to become Brazil’s
largest trading partner. This was a historic change, as the US had been Brazil’s top trade partner since the
1930s. Although likely to prove temporary, given the US economy’s exceptional weakness that year, it is an
indication of the great importance the Chinese market now has for Brazilian commodity exporters