Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff used a visit to the White House on Monday to complain about US monetary policy as she made her case for international action against currency "manipulation" directly to Barack Obama. In a meeting that highlighted the occasionally uneasy relationship between the two countries despite their potential to be strong partners, Rousseff said that excessive monetary expansion in the US and Europe was hampering growth in countries such as Brazil.| Brazil apparently is no fan of quantitative easing... |
| Brazil has a socialist economy. Quantitative easing is a feature, not a bug. |
| Their own easing, sure. Not ours. |
Rousseff has complained about a "monetary tsunami" that has swamped emerging markets, inflating the value of their currencies and rendering their industries uncompetitive.
"We expressed Brazil's concern with the expansionary monetary policies in rich countries ... which is leading to the depreciation of developed country currencies and compromising growth among emerging economies," she said, sitting beside Mr Obama after their meeting in the Oval Office. Her comments mirror similar complaints she made to the German chancellor Angela Merkel during a visit to Germany last month.
Brazil wants the issue to be addressed eventually through dispute-solving mechanisms in the World Trade Organisation. Rousseff's administration won a small victory late last month when it helped to organise a WTO symposium to discuss the matter.
Although few analysts expect the initiative to amount to anything concrete in the longer run because of sharp international differences over the issue, any US recognition of the currency war would be an important moral victory for Brazil. It would play well domestically for the Rousseff government, which has launched a high-profile programme to shield domestic industry from the effects of a strong currency.