Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said Monday that her recent visit to China marked a "significant improvement" in relations but that more needed to be done to improve bilateral trade.
"I think it was a significant improvement in our relations. But we still want more. We now sell a lot of raw materials to China. We also want to sell higher value-added products," Rousseff said in her weekly radio program.
Rousseff sought to expand Brazil's exports during her visit last week to Latin America's largest economy, in her first major foreign trip since taking office in January.
The two major emerging powers signed nearly two dozen agreements after talks between Rousseff and Chinese President Hu Jintao, including a deal for the sale of 35 Embraer E190 commercial jets to two Chinese airlines.
The visit "was very successful because we met our aims of opening doors for higher value-added products to enter China, and to work together in areas such as science and technology," Rousseff said.
China has in recent years become Brazil's largest trading partner, and in 2010 was the largest investor in the South American nation, pumping in about $30 billion.
Two-way trade has grown from $2.3 billion in 2000 to $56.4 billion in 2010, according to Brazilian officials.
For China, Brazil, the world's eighth largest economy, is now an important source of raw materials: oil, iron ore and soybeans account for 80 percent of Chinese imports and 90 percent of its investments.
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