As it continues its process of opening up, this giant market is likely to offer the biggest opportunities for trade and investment south of the Rio Grande.
Canadian business has a long, if somewhat sporadic association with Brazil.
Now is the time to build on past ties and develop new ones. There are several reasons. For one, Brazil has a history which suggests that it will be the site of much of the growth to occur in Latin America over the coming decades. This was the world's fastest growing country over the period 1945-80. Although the international debt crisis of the 1980s hit the country very hard, Brazil's share of the blame for its woes at this time was less than in the case of a number of other countries of the region.