HAVANA – Cuban President Raul Castro received Brazilian Foreign Trade Minister Miguel Jorge, with whom he discussed the advancement of bilateral relations, the Havana government said in a communique.

The meeting “allowed (the two countries) to evaluate the course of bilateral cooperation,” which “received a noteworthy push” with the visit to Havana of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in January 2008 and that of Castro to the giant South American nation last December, the official announcement added.

Brazilian officials say their country’s exports to Cuba from January to September 2009 totaled $216 million, a drop of 43 percent with respect to the same period in 2008, but Cuban sales to Brazil grew by 42 percent during the same period to $34 million.

Cuba is suffering from an acute recession that has reduced its foreign trade by 36 percent in the first nine months of this year, as Foreign Trade Minister Rodrigo Malmierca acknowledged earlier this week.

Before the meeting with Gen. Castro, Jorge attended the inauguration of the Brazilian pavilion at the International Trade Fair in Havana, where 32 firms from Brazil are displaying products or services.

In addition, he reviewed several bilateral projects, including the creation of a mixed company that will produce in Brazil a Cuban-developed medication for asthma.

Lula’s government has investments in Cuba of some $600 million planned for the period 2009-2012, of which so far $300 million have been approved for this year and next.

A large part of the funds will go to the reconstruction of the Cuban container port at Mariel, west of Havana, a project that will cost a total of about $2 billion, according to Brazilian sources.

The Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht is scheduled to begin work in 2010 on modernizing the access highways and railways, as well as upgrading the docks and warehouses at the port.

At the inauguration of the pavilion, Malmierca thanked Brazil for its support of a recent U.N. General Assembly resolution against the economic embargo the United States has maintained against the Caribbean island since 1962. EFE