text: Brazils 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 banks Foreign Trade Department (Cacex) Roberto Fendt attributed Marchs 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 governments 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
target: BRAZIL TRADE SURPLUS FALLS SHARPLY IN MARCH