With Dilma's action, victory at the WTO shatters myths.

Marco Damiani_247 It would take a great deal of factual myopia to say that the World Trade Organization is an irrelevant body (here), to minimize the importance of the victory of the Brazilian ambassador Roberto Azevêdo over eight candidates and, in the final electoral round, this Tuesday the 7th, surpassing the Mexican Herminio Blanco, in a plenary session composed of high-level representatives from 159 countries.

In the day-to-day workings of the WTO in Geneva, countries must account for their export, import, and subsidy policies, present their conflicts in detailed official dispute resolution panels, are routinely judged, and may receive multi-billion dollar fines or recover spectacular losses. Irrelevant there are not even the armchairs where trade ambassadors from around the world sit to coordinate strategies, forge alliances, choose adversaries, and garner support.

Fueled by a personal and energetic attitude from President Dilma Rousseff, as reported by 247, the victory of Azevêdo, a 55-year-old from Salvador (closestThis article debunks myths, sometimes fabricated, sometimes amplified by the traditional national media, according to which Brazil is a commercially closed country, without leadership in the so-called concert of nations, clinging to lost causes and therefore always subjugated by the supremacy of the Northern Hemisphere, in US-European Union agreements, within multilateral organizations.

The decisive moment of Brazil's victory, hailed, as expected, in an official statement from the Brazilian government, occurred less than two months ago. The setting was the President's office on the third floor of the Palácio do Planalto. Through the press, President Dilma Rousseff learned that Ambassador Azevêdo was advancing in the race to become Director-General of the WTO, defeating his initial opponents. She then summoned Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota to obtain official information. Without receiving a report she considered complete, Dilma summoned Azevêdo himself to Brasília to find out directly from him what was finally happening. In the meeting with him, which was attended by the Foreign Minister and the Minister of Development, Fernando Pimentel, Dilma addressed a direct question to him.

What do you need to move forward?

"Fly a lot, if possible with an airplane at my disposal, and three advisors," replied the Itamaraty official, who has been performing strategic functions within the WTO for eight years, objectively.

Immediately, according to the version believed by 247, the president gave orders for the ambassador to be received. And she surprised, in a way, by designating Minister Pimentel, and not Foreign Minister Patriota, to support her in the day-to-day running of the campaign.

"Sir, you resolve whatever needs to be done with the minister," Dilma instructed, pointing to her long-time, trusted partner.

Phone calls to heads of state - From that moment on, the president never lost sight of the Brazilian candidate's performance, previously treated as "just another of Itamaraty's many issues." She personally immersed herself in direct contact with heads of state, calling various presidents of friendly countries to ask for votes for Azevêdo. Minister Pimentel began monitoring Dilma's progress closely. It was for this reason that, on Tuesday the 7th, the day of the "overwhelming victory," according to the president's official statement, Pimentel made public declarations before Patriota, who was running late for the scheduled 15:30 PM press conference in Brasília to comment on the achievement. Pimentel stressed that the victory was not Brazil's, but that of the entire WTO. In her statement, President Dilma reaffirmed the same reasoning.

With his inauguration scheduled for August 31st, a four-year term, and the right to seek re-election, Ambassador Azevêdo becomes the embodiment of the end of a series of myths. It is still common, in explanations given by the traditional media for what they call Brazil's "isolation" in the international trade scenario, to claim that the country is closed. This is far from the truth. Besides the dozens of votes from business partners necessary to build various majorities until the final round of elections, there is also the situation of Brazil's trade balance. Last month, a deficit of US$914 million was reported between what the country sold and what it bought from abroad. This shows that we continue to buy everything from pins to luxury cars here. One may not like this policy, but it cannot be said that it is not open – exactly as Brazil demands in all existing multilateral organizations, as reciprocity for the rest of the world, especially the central countries.

WITH SHOES - In the same country where a foreign minister, Ambassador Celso Lafer, agreed to remove his shoes to set foot on US soil, assuming that he himself could be a suspect in smuggling or terrorism, the myth was created that our diplomacy, with the PT in power, only clings to useless and previously defeated causes. Decidedly, this is not the case. The change in posture regarding diplomacy practiced during the PSDB's period in power – itself entirely different from that exercised in the previous governments of José Sarney and Fernando Collor (with Itamar Franco, Fernando Henrique himself was the Minister of Foreign Affairs, planting the seeds of what would sprout in his administration) – is clear. But that doesn't make it worse.

Starting with Lula's presidency in 2002, the jokingly named "little bearded ones" of Itamaraty – considered more left-leaning – returned to the most important positions, rescued from distant embassies and minor posts. The new Foreign Minister, Celso Amorim, himself a national activist within the WTO, revived the times of Itamaraty's independence, especially in relation to the United States. This independence was guaranteed even during the military dictatorship, with Foreign Ministers Azeredo da Silveira and Saraiva Guerreiro. In those two almost entire five-year periods, Brazil established itself through its positions aligned with the countries known as non-aligned. It supported the claims of the forgotten continent, Africa, advocated for Arab nations, and negotiated frankly with them, and was never afraid of China, then diplomatically unreachable.

Another myth that is now falling apart is that diplomacy never gained anything by being independent of American orders, whether those transmitted by the warmongering Richard Nixon in the 1970s, or by the upholder of old practices Barack Obama now. Azevêdo's victory shows that having a clear, pluralistic, and multilateral position on the global stage, in pursuit of permanent values, and not immediate advantage or the promise of protection, does pay off.

PERMANENT VALUES - Ambassador Azevêdo is living proof that the strategy which, among most commentators in the international sector, seemed doomed to failure here, is a strategy that... ad eternumThis can yield very tasty and healthy results. He was the commander of Brazil's victorious battles against US subsidies on cotton and European Union subsidies on sugar. By provoking the fury of the rich through his technical competence and negotiating firmness, he gained, in turn, the admiration of the poor. Without arrogance, however, but with direction, sweat, and great effort, the recovered Brazilian diplomacy also managed to garner support among the central countries. The announcement of the number of votes given to Azevêdo, scheduled for this Wednesday the 8th, will make it clearer how much has been achieved in this thornier area. Note that the victory over a Mexican candidate, a member country of the FTAA, is, directly, in practice, a championship final won against the United States and its widespread protectionism in subsidies, fiscal and customs barriers, and its heavy-handed diplomacy.

Furthermore, the myth of the successful international commentator falls apart. After newspapers, almost two decades ago, cut their overseas outposts due to economic reasons and also disinterest, or replaced renowned reporters based in major capitals with entry-level professionals with salaries similar to a stipend, world pages in traditional media practically disappeared. What was once the pinnacle of a journalist's professional career became a first step attainable only by a select few, and even then, only for a short time. Therefore, many in this same media predicted Brazil's downfall. This happened due to ideological bias coupled with misinformation.

The media coverage of the battle, which dragged on for weeks until yesterday, was paltry. And it seemed all the more lukewarm the more it resonated as the quixotic Azevêdo tilting at windmills. Since the last election for the position of Director-General in 2010, however, the diplomat from Bahia has been seen by his peers around the world as one of the best-prepared candidates for the job. For the old, rule-dictating press, it's one thing not to know that the future Pope would come from Argentina. Normal. But it's quite another to have no idea what's going on in the most powerful organization in world trade. Now, it no longer matters whether Brazilian newspapers, magazines, and television will closely follow Roberto Azevêdo's performance at the head of the WTO from August onwards. The world will.