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According to the Brazilian Secretary of Planning, Guido Mantega, at a meeting<br />

with potential investors in Washington on December 4, 2003, 268 the Brazilian government<br />

plans a total expenditure in infrastructure of up to 100 billion US-dollars over<br />

the next four years. Other estimates envision even higher expenditures. The Estado<br />

de São Paulo from June 25, 2003 reported estimates of coming investments for<br />

the energetic sector of only 82 billion US-dollars. 269 And the Brazilian government<br />

is very interested in obtaining the participation of foreign private enterprises in these<br />

projects: Luiz Ignácio Lula da Silva, on his visit to Madrid on July 14th called on the<br />

European investors to invest in order to “create a prospering South America.” 270<br />

And last but not least the MERCOSUR-European Business Forum (MEBF) is<br />

surely one of the most influential actors in the area of investment in the negotiating<br />

agenda between the EU and MERCOSUR. The MEBF was founded in 1999 with the<br />

objective of accompanying the free trade negotiations between the EU and MERCO-<br />

SUR, - which amounts to nothing less than lobbying for their own interests in order<br />

to have them included in the agreement:<br />

“The MEBF is based on the idea that entrepreneurs should identify<br />

MERCOSUR/EU barriers to trade , services an investment, and elaborate joint<br />

recommendations to eliminate these restrictions.” 271<br />

The list of participants of the MEBF-conference in Buenos Aires in 2001 sounds<br />

more like a “who is who” of international corporations: Arcelor, Siemens, Alcatel,<br />

Alstom, BASF, Telefónica, Repsol YPF, DaimlerChrysler, Degussa, Ericsson, Fiat,<br />

France Telecom, Portugal Telecom, Renault, Peugeot, Bosch, Suez, ThyssenKrupp,<br />

Volkswagen and of course the German BDI and the Brazilian Sadia (whose president,<br />

now the Brazilian Secretary of Foreign Trade, does not lose sight of his poultry<br />

business) were present.<br />

268<br />

http://www.abtc.org.br/info.php?codigo=1902.<br />

269<br />

Estado de São Paulo, June 25, 2003.<br />

270<br />

“[...] para a construção de uma América do Sul mais próspera”, Folha de São Paulo, July 5, 2003.<br />

271 http://mebf.arcelor.com/about.htm.<br />

93

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