The 1,000 government and business leaders at the East Asia Economic Summit of the World Economic Forum in Singapore Oct. 12 to 14 will be watching the Brazilian economy with wary eyes, says a UC Davis economics professor. Wing Thye Woo, considered one of the world's leading economic experts on China and other Asian countries, is coordinating a 10-member team preparing a preliminary report on East Asian economies for the regional summit and a more comprehensive report for 2,500 delegates attending the World Economic Forum in Switzerland in January. If Brazil cannot withstand the attacks on its currency, Woo says, the East Asian economic recovery will be even slower than anticipated. "There will be great worries," he says, "if that happens." Woo says a collapse of the Brazilian currency would result in substantial losses for those U.S. banks heavily exposed in Brazil and would reduce U.S. exports to the troubled country. The resulting slowdown in the U.S. economy would cause a drop in U.S. imports from East Asia. In its report, Woo's team will provide a regional economic forecast, options for coping with the problems identified and economic summaries by country and industrial sector.