Victory at the WTO sinks counter-journalism.
When Roberto Azevedo was nominated to head the World Trade Organization, in a historic victory for Brazilian diplomacy, also orchestrated by Minister Fernando Pimentel, conservative columnists, such as Reinaldo Azevedo, downplayed it; a Veja blogger even said it was "irrelevant"; this Saturday (7), one of his neoconservative colleagues, Demétrio Magnoli, wrote about the "disaster" that occurred at the WTO and stated that Brazil was becoming an "island"; this Saturday, the world celebrates an agreement that could unlock US$ 1 trillion in trade transactions.
247 - The tendency of most Brazilian media analysts to always see failure even in the most positive situations in the Brazilian economy and politics suffered another setback this weekend. Columnists, such as the conservative Reinaldo Azevedo (of Veja.com and Folha), and his apprentice, Demétrio Magnoli (of Folha), were extremely pessimistic about the actions of Brazilian Roberto Azevêdo, Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO). And they saw their predictions fail in the face of... historic global agreement closed this Saturday (7), to break down trade barriers and generate up to 1 trillion dollars in business.
The New York Times, the world's leading newspaper, saw the outcome of the WTO meeting on Bali Island, Indonesia, as "a milestone for the 159 members" of the international organization. It added that the agreement "rescues the WTO from the brink of failure and will rekindle confidence in its ability to reduce barriers to world trade after 12 years of fruitless negotiations" (read the original article - in English -). here).
But columnists in the national media, until Saturday morning, viewed the WTO agreement as "a disaster." According to Demétrio Magnoli, in his... column in FolhaThe WTO would be reduced to the status of a "vestigial entity, a court of commercial disputes." And he continues on the negative note: "The failure hits Brazil hard, highlighting a series of foreign policy errors caused by the subordination of national interest to the imperative of ideology," wrote Magnoli, adding that "there was no shortage of warnings."
Given the agreement reached, it's fortunate that these "warnings" were ignored. One of these outcries against the WTO, which has been in the hands of a Brazilian, Roberto Azevêdo, since September, came from another Azevêdo, Reinaldo. What did he say? "Azevêdo at the WTO means that the rest of the world applauds our incompetence. Especially since the US, the European Union, China, Canada, Chile, and Peru will continue to make their bilateral agreements, regardless of Azevêdo's gospel. They may even declare Brazil the moral champion of multilateralism, but they will continue to profit from bilateralism."
The "failure-maniacs'" view proved wrong. Once again. Thanks to the skill of a Brazilian diplomat, the world was surprised by a trade agreement that could help pull countries out of the crisis. The architect of Azevêdo's victory at the WTO, Minister Fernando Pimentel, highlighted from the outset "his capacity for dialogue and consensus-building." He was absolutely right.
In the forecast he made in May, in article In his article published in Folha, Pimentel used the following terms: "May a management that restores the importance of multilateralism and returns to the WTO its function as regulator of global trade relations go down in history for the noblest reasons." Indeed, Pimentel, Roberto Azevêdo's performance has already gone down in history.