As earmarked last week, US President Barack Obama´s historic visit to Brazil this week has included a serious commitment to significantly ramp up interaction over the coming years in an attempt to create new business links through the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Rio Olympics.
In Rio de Janeiro during the first stop of his Latin American trip Obama announced that the US Export-Import Bank will make a $1 billion line of credit available for Cup and Games infrastructure projects, although $2 billion in credit was also made available for Brazilian oil giant Petrobras, Latin America's biggest company, for ongoing development of oil fields off Rio´s coast.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and Obama also signed agreements promising reductions in trade barriers and an expansion of commercial flights between the two nations. For the infrastructure credit, both US businesses and Brazilian companies seeking goods and services from the US will be eligible.
50 US business leaders also travelled to Brazil for the widely covered Obama visit, discussing various investment opportunities with key Brazilian groups, including FIESP, the Industry Federation of Sao Paulo State.