The vice-president, Geraldo Alckmin (PSB), and the Chinese ambassador to Brazil, Zhu Qingqiao.| Photo: Reproduction/Social networks.

The vice-president and minister of Industry and Commerce, Geraldo Alckmin (PSB), met this Tuesday (28) with the Chinese ambassador to Brazil, Zhu Qingqiao. During the meeting, Alckmin said he hoped that “beef exports to China will resume as soon as an examination confirms the atypical occurrence of the disease”.

On Wednesday (22), the government of Pará confirmed an “atypical” case of “mad cow” disease in the state. Atypical cases of the disease arise spontaneously in nature and do not pose a risk of dissemination to the herd or humans. A day later, the Ministry of Agriculture suspended Brazilian beef exports to China.

“With regard to the suspected case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease), I reinforced the expectation that beef exports to China will resume as soon as the examination confirms the atypical occurrence of the disease,” said the vice president at the twitter.

Alckmin and the ambassador also discussed “trade and investment opportunities and the important cooperation within the scope of the Sino-Brazilian Commission of High Level of Concertation and Cooperation – COSBAN”. The vice-president pointed out that China has been, since 2009, Brazil’s main trading partner in the world. “The trade flow grows every year and reached US$150 billion in 2022, with a surplus of US$28.7 billion for Brazil,” he said.

“We agreed on the need to consolidate the existing partnership (infrastructure, telecommunications, agriculture, etc.) and expand the relationship to new strategic areas such as sustainable energy, carbon credit market, bioeconomy, health complex, among others”, he added.