Brazil in the Global Economy

Abstract

Brazil has a complicated relationship with free trade. A founding member of the World Trade Organization and a key player in the Mercosur agreement, Brazil has long participated in free trade when determined to be advantageous. However, in particular industries of domestic importance, Brazil has avoided constraining themselves to international trade agreements in the same manner. Clearly, Brazil’s choice to lean into free trade is not ideological, rather it is strategic — and selective. Similarly, Brazil has had a wavering relationship with free trade agreements as they relate to attempted impositions of environmental protections. The decisions of the Brazilian government with regard to selective ecological concern are often reflective of the nation’s status as a semiperiphery economy and the internal core-periphery structure. Within this world economic structure, international trade agreements represent an underdeveloped tool for strengthening environmental protections within Brazil and particularly within the most disadvantaged, internal periphery communities.