Brazil seeks new phase in China trade ties

BEIJING, Apr 13 (AFP): Visiting Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff Tuesday called for a "new phase" in ties with China and urged the world's second-largest economy to buy more from her country than iron ore and soybeans. Rousseff, who arrived in Beijing on Monday for her first major foreign trip since taking office in January, is looking to boost ties with China, which has in recent years become Brazil's largest trade partner and largest investor. The two major emerging powers signed nearly two dozen agreements after talks between Rousseff and Chinese President Hu Jintao, including a deal for the sale of 35 Embraer E190 commercial jets to two Chinese airlines. "Brazil wants to inaugurate a new phase in these relations -- a qualitative leap," Rousseff told a high-level dialogue on science and technology to kick off a jam-packed day of meetings with Chinese officials and top businessmen. "We need to go beyond the complementarity of our economies (...) to encourage a dynamic, diversified and balanced relationship," said Rousseff, who traveled to China with about 300 business leaders. She said the "challenge for the coming years" would be to transform Brazil's trade relationship with China to feature "higher value-added products" such as aircraft, not just agricultural products like soybeans, iron ore and oil.