When Chinese premier Li Keqiang swept through Brazil this week, he and his Brazilian counterpart, President Dilma Rousseff, sought to make an impression by unveiling deals worth $53bn.
中国总理李克强本周“席卷”巴西时，与巴西政府首脑迪尔玛•罗塞夫(Dilma Rousseff)总统用公布一揽子价值530亿美元协议的方式，给人们留下了深刻印象。But much of this package consisted of old announcements reheated to look more appetising, especially to a Brazilian public worried about sinking economic growth.
但在这一整套协议当中，有不少是早先就已宣布过的，这次只是“回炉加热”了一下，以便让它们看起来比较“美味”——尤其是对担心本国经济增长下滑的巴西民众而言。
Take the exciting news that China would lift an embargo on Brazilian beef, for instance. Introduced in 2012 because of fears over “mad cow” disease, China and Brazil first signalled the lifting of the embargo on Brazilian beef exports last July. They then announced it again in December. Now they are promising it will be fully lifted by next month.
比如说下面这条令人兴奋的消息：中国将解除对巴西牛肉的进口禁令。出于对疯牛病的担心，中国2012年出台了这一禁令。去年7月，中国与巴西首次表示将解除这一禁令。去年12月，两国重申了这一点。现在，双方承诺将不晚于下月全面解除该禁令。
The relationship between Brazil and China should be a match made in heaven with the potential to be one of the defining bilateral trade partnerships of the 21st century.
中巴关系应以“天作之合”来形容，而且有潜力成为21世纪具有决定性影响的双边贸易合作关系之一。Already an agricultural power, Brazil is one of the few countries with the potential to meet China and the rest of Asia’s growing demand for food in the coming decades.
已然成为农业强国的巴西，是为数不多的几个有潜力在未来几十年里满足中国及亚洲其他地区日益增长的粮食需求的国家之一。Latin America’s largest economy, meanwhile, urgently needs to build up its infrastructure, whether it is road, rail, ports and airports or its electricity network. In this China is uniquely positioned to help as another continent-sized nation with expertise in infrastructure and excess industrial capacity looking for a market.
与此同时，这个拉美最大经济体迫切需要建设本国的基础设施，无论是公路、铁路、港口和机场，还是电网。在这方面，中国拥有独特的优势，因为与巴西一样幅员辽阔的中国既有基建方面的专长，又有正在寻找市场的过剩工业产能。China also has a high savings rate but needs to develop its domestic market while Brazil saves little but has a thriving consumer and services economy.
中国储蓄率较高，但国内市场有待开发，而巴西储蓄率很低、但有蓬勃发展的消费和服务型经济。The synergies between the two are self-evident but realising them has not been easy. The difficulty in reaching and executing agreements was evident in some of the tortured language in this week’s announcements.
两国间的协同效应不言而喻，但要实现双赢也并非易事。协议的达成和执行中存在的困难，在本周公告的部分含糊措辞中体现得很明显。The prize for the vaguest formulation went to Chinese bank ICBC and Petrobras, which signed “an agreement to co-operate to create a long-term relationship”. In another, China ExIm Bank reached a memorandum of understanding to “consider” lending money to two Chinese companies to “facilitate” their furnishing of shipping services to Vale, the Brazilian iron ore exporter. Vale and one of the Chinese companies, Cosco, also revealed a deal for the sale of bulk iron ore carriers that they first signalled last September.
最含糊的表述来自中国工商银行(ICBC)与巴西国家石油公司(Petrobras)，双方签署了“一项合作协议，以建立一种长期关系”。在另一则公告中，中国进出口银行(China ExIm Bank)与两家中资企业达成了一份谅解备忘录，“考虑”贷款给后者以“便于”它们为巴西铁矿石出口商淡水河谷(Vale)提供航运服务。淡水河谷与其中一家中资企业——中远集团(Cosco)——还披露了一笔出售大型矿砂船的交易的情况。双方曾与去年9月首次提到这笔交易。Other not-so-new announcements included Chinese loans to state-owned oil company Petrobras and a Chinese order for 40 Brazilian Embraer aircraft.
其他不算太新的公告包括，中国向巴西国家石油公司提供贷款并向巴西航空工业公司(Embraer)订购40架飞机。Also vague was a plan to study a railway linking Brazil’s Atlantic coast to a Pacific port in Peru.
同样含糊的还有一项计划——启动对连接巴西大西洋海岸与秘鲁太平洋港口的铁路的可行性研究。To be sure, the incentives are increasing for China and Brazil to make headway on investment and Chinese companies have made some inroads. State Grid, the Chinese electricity transmission company, has a strong presence in Brazil while Chinese oil companies have invested in the Latin American country’s rich offshore oil blocks.
可以肯定，推动中国与巴西在投资方面进一步合作的激励因素正在增加，而且中国企业已经取得了一些进展。中国输电企业国家电网(State Grid)在巴西拥有众多项目，而中国石油企业已投资于巴西储量丰富的海上石油区块。Overall, the results are patchy. Two-way exports have soared from as little as $2bn in 2000 to $78bn last year, according to figures from the Brazilian trade secretariat compiled by Eurasia Group. But Chinese foreign direct investment in Brazil has varied wildly, from $395m in 2010 to $110m in 2013 before jumping to $840m in 2014.
总体来看，合作的成果并非尽善尽美。欧亚集团(Eurasia Group)汇编的、源自巴西外贸秘书处(SECEX)的数据显示，巴中双边出口额已从2000年的区区20亿美元飙升至去年的780亿美元。但中国对巴西的直接投资波动很大，先是从2010年的3.95亿美元下降至2013年的1.1亿美元，后又猛增至2014年的8.4亿美元。Both sides need to be more flexible. China will have to relax conditions that analysts say it attaches to projects, such as the use of Chinese made equipment or Chinese labour. Brazil needs to reduce bureaucracy and embrace Chinese business, which it still views with suspicion.
双方都需要采取更灵活的政策。分析师指出，中国需要放宽一些项目的附加条件，比如必须使用中国制造的设备或中国工人。巴西则需要减少官僚作风，拥抱那些它仍以怀疑眼光看待的中国企业。A good start for Brazil might be the relaxation of a ban on foreign purchases of tracts of farmland larger than 5,000ha that many thought was directed at the Chinese, or an increase in taxes on cars with high imported content, again thought to have been aimed at the Chinese.
对巴西来说，一个良好的开端或许是放松禁止单一外国人或外国企业购买5000公顷以上巴西土地的禁令（很多人认为这条禁令是针对中国人的），或者取消对那些由高比例进口部件装配的汽车的加税（也被认为是针对中国人的）。Until such steps are taken, no amount of reheating of old news will serve to freshen up a relationship whose great potential is being left to spoil.
如果不采取这些措施，这一双边关系就会丧失潜力，回炉再多的旧闻也无法让其焕发新生。