BRAZIL TRADE SURPLUS FALLS SHARPLY IN MARCH
Brazil's trade surplus in March
totalled 136 mln dlrs, down from 1.13 billion dlrs in the same
month last year, the official Banco do Brasil announced.
    In a news conference, the director of the bank's Foreign
Trade Department (Cacex), Roberto Fendt, attributed March's 
weak performance to labour strikes.
    March exports totalled 1.43 billion dlrs, against 1.53
billion dlrs in February, and 2.16 billion dlrs in March 1986.
    March imports amounted to 1.29 billion dlrs compared to
1.27 billion dlrs in February and 1.02 billion dlrs in March
1986.
    Fendt said coffee earnings were up to 220 mln dlrs in March
from 110 mln dlrs in February, while oil derivatives were down
to 54 mln dlrs from 58 mln dlrs in February.
    He said that although the March results were considerably
lower than the same month last year, the government's target of
an eight billion dlr surplus for 1987 should be achieved. The
January-March trade surplus totalled 526 mln dlrs, below the
same period last year, which reached 2.46 billion dlrs.
    Asked to explain the reason for his optimism, Fendt said
the trade surplus should reach one billion dlrs in each of the
last six months of the year.
    Even though results in the exports of steel, shoes and
frozen concentrated orange juice were weaker compared to
February, Fendt said this was not an indication that the United
States was retaliating on account of its dispute with Brazil in
the issue of informatics.
    For the next three months, Fendt estimated a monthly trade
surplus of 400 mln dlrs, for an overall surplus of 1.2 billion
dlrs in the April-May-June period.
 Reuter
