U.S. Seeks Partnership With Brazil on Ethanol

The United States and Brazil, the two largest biofuel producers in the world, are meeting this week to discuss a new energy partnership that they hope will encourage ethanol use throughout Latin America and that U.S. officials hope will diminish the regional influence of oil-rich Venezuela.

U.S. officials said they expect to sign accords within a year that would promote technology-sharing with Brazil and encourage more Latin American neighbors to become biofuel producers and consumers.
The United States and Brazil together produce about 70 percent of the world’s ethanol, a fuel that President Bush has called a cornerstone in reducing U.S. dependence on oil.

“It’s clearly in our interests — Brazil’s and the United States’s — that we expand the global market for biofuels, particularly ethanol, and that it become a global commodity of sorts,” said R. Nicholas Burns, the U.S. undersecretary of state, who led discussions with Brazilian government officials on Wednesday.

Washington Post