Brazil´s main telecom business association and the Brazil-China Business Council (CEBC) have supported the participation of Huawei and other Chinese companies in the country´s 5G projects,opposed by the United States.
After the government of President Jair Bolsonaro announced the adhesion to the ‘Clean Networks’ initiative promoted by the US Government against the participation of Chinese companies like Huawei in the 5G infrastructure of other countries, Conexis, which represents the main Brazilian telecoms, spoke out on Friday against the initiative.
The telecommunications companies, it said in a statement, are “concerned with the uncertainties generated by these discussions” of restricting suppliers, and “underscore the need for transparency in the entire process, thus respecting the fundamental principle of free initiative present in our Federal Constitution”.
“Any restrictions (on the participation of 5G technology suppliers) will imply potential imbalances in costs and delays, directly affecting the population”, says Conexis. “The vast majority of operators are publicly traded companies and the transparency of the discussions is essential to generate security for investors and continue to attract new investments to the country”, it adds.
Last week, Brazilian MP Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of President Jair Bolsonaro and chairman of the Chamber’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Commission, caused a diplomatic incident with China after stating, through social media, that the ‘Clean Networks’ initiative avoids spying from China.
In response, the Chinese Embassy said on Tuesday, via social media, that the deputy mimics the United States and called for American rhetoric to be abandoned to avoid “negative consequences”.
“Such unfounded statements are not worthy of the position of chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Chamber of Deputies. They lend themselves to the US dictates of misusing the concept of national security to slander China and curtail the activities of Chinese companies. This is totally unacceptable for the Chinese side and we express strong dissatisfaction and vehement repudiation of this behavior, “he said.
The CEBC event, which brings together Brazilian and Chinese companies, served to launch a study on Brazil-China relations, which points to the “increased uncertainty regarding the future”, due to tensions between Beijing and Washington, including regarding the 5G auction, scheduled for the first half of 2021, “which will be an important milestone for the Brazilian position in relation to the economy-security binomial and to the China-USA strategic rivalry”.
According to CEBC, even commercial relations with other Chinese companies such as Alibaba, Tencent, Didi and DJI can be “hampered if restrictions on Chinese participation in the area of telecommunications infrastructure are established”.
CEBC estimates that the results of the Brazil-China trade in recent years reflect a success “of complementarity with few parallels in the world”, but that Brazil has not been able to exploit the full potential of collaboration with its commercial partner. Areas explored by the CEBC study are agribusiness, energy and e-commerce.
