Issues in International Political Economy: Promising Ethanol Developments

March 15, 2007

Brazil, for some time, has been advocating a cooperative arrangement with the United States and other countries for the production of ethanol. There was no immediate substantive response from the United States, but President George W. Bush, in his State of the Union address in January this year, said that he wanted to reduce gasoline consumption in the United States by 20 percent in 10 years. The initial Brazilian partnership idea has since taken on an air of inevitability.