BRASILIA, 27 November 2004 — Morocco’s King Mohammed VI was on an official visit to Brazil yesterday, expected to be capped with the signing of a framework agreement between Rabat and Mercosur, which groups together Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Mohammed VI, who arrived in Brasilia late Thursday, was welcomed with military honors yesterday by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Twenty-one cannon blasts sounded off in honor of the king, who was greeted by Lula and Foreign Minister Celso Amorim outside Planalto Palace, where the meetings were to take place, followed by lunch.
Rabat is seeking agreement on “customs preferences” as part of a free trade agreement between the kingdom and Mercosur.
Brazil and Morocco have gotten the ball rolling with some $450 million in trade between January and September of this year, with the scales tipping slightly in Brazil’s favor to the tune of $68 million.
“There is great potential” for developing trade in the agricultural sector and in cultivating natural water resources, said Brazil’s ambassador to Rabat, Carlos Alberto Simas Magalhaes.
Brazil also views Morocco as a vital “gateway” to Africa, he noted.
Brazilians Protest Economic Policies
Nearly 9,000 rural farm workers and landless peasants marched in the nation’s capital Thursday, seeking major land reform legislation, the official Agencia Brasil news agency said.
The protesters, who were gathered in Brasilia since Monday for a national convention on land redistribution, wrote a document with their demands for delivery to President Lula and central bank chief Henrique Meirelles.
The protesters formed a half-mile-long line as they marched on the central bank’s headquarters and the Planalto Palace.
“It’s fundamental and urgent that we have a democratization of the access to the land,” the document said according to Agencia Brasil.
The protesters also delivered about 10,000 letters written by the farm workers asking for changes in Silva’s economic policy, the news agency said.
The protesters said the president’s policy has done very little to help the country’s tens of millions of poor. Many said Silva’s promises to redistribute land to the needy have fallen short.
