A resolution to strength bilateral relations with brazil

I accept.

Post your argument.

BRIC

The United States entering into stronger relations with Brazil in order to strengthen ties with BRIC is redundant because the United States already has close ties to India, strong economic ties with China and are entering into chilly relations with Russia.

President Putin is already showing his Anti-American attitude in the news [1] and entering into relations with a close friend to Russia could be bad politically with the United States and act to strain future relations between the two nations.

Entering into BRIC would not only be redundant in some areas but in poor political taste in others.

Ethanol

Most of your argument is centered around created a "strong global ethanol market" when this is not a US priority or interest. As we can see from the graph in source two [2] American ethanol consumption matches up nearly perfectly with our production and importing ethanol is not needed.

You also cite that ethanol can be produced cheaper in Brazil but then leave out the fact that the cost of importing the ethanol from Brazil would offset the price difference in producing here in America. The United States is home to some of the largest corn fields in the world and our agricultural production is top notch, importing ethanol would be unneeded and expensive. The demand is not there to justify improving relations with another country for the sake of ethanol since our supply matches our demand domestically.

Anti-US Interests

Brazil also enters into some policies that are against US policy.

Brazil has strong ties to Iran - a strong enemy of the United States. [3]

Brazil is clear cutting forests and causing environmental destruction. [4]

Since Brazil is engaged in policies that the US doesn't favor, relations with them are outweighed negatively and are therefore undesirable.

* The United States has no need politically or economically to enter into BRIC for various reasons

* Ethanol is not a viable or justifiable reason to improve relations with another nation

* Brazil engages in policies the US doesn't agree with.

We should not improve relations with Brazil.


[1] http://www.reuters.com...
[2] www.afdc.energy.gov/afdc/data/docs/ethanol_production_consumption.xls
[3] http://articles.cnn.com...
[4] http://news.mongabay.com...

BRIC

As I said before (and you didn't respond adequately) our relations with the BRIC countries would be redundant through Brazil or damaging.

I would also like to point out that India does not equal Brazil. There is nothing to say that they would be anything alike in the political arena. That's like saying "Japan has bad relations with Korea so we'll have bad relations with Korea" when in fact it's quite the opposite. You can't use relations with one country to gauge the success of relations with another.

India has nothing to do with Brazil in this debate.

There is no "harm" but there are negative consequences of doing so. We'd never be able to face the UN or environmentally conscious Europe if we support Brazil and their clear cutting of the Amazon. We don't need their ethanol and we would give them a chance to gain US intel through Russia and Russia to gain US intel through Brazil. The negative effects are present but the positive ones are no where to be found.

Obama

Whether Obama does something or not doesn't mean that we should. Obama once did crack cocaine, should all Americans do cocaine? No. Just because the President does something doesn't make it the right course of action.

Also, there could be any number of reasons for the president to visit somewhere. Strengthening of relations isn't the only reason for a presidential visit. The Olympics are going to Brazil in 2016, Brazil is supporting an Argentinian blockade of the Falkland Islands and Brazil is a notorious drug producing country. These are many unfavorable reasons to illicit a political response outside of the ambiguous "strengthening relations" umbrella you put over it.

I already mentioned some of the policies:

- Tight relations with Iran
- Negative environmental impacts
- Drugs
- Blockading the British held Falkland Islands

Those are all policies we don't agree with.

Also, no we don't agree with China's policies which is why we don't have strong overall relations with the country and have made no move to strengthen them. We have economic ties to them only.