Comércio internacional, politica comercial brasileira e a atuação da Câmara de Comércio Exterior (CAMEX) na condução das políticas para o setor

The proposal of this study is to present an assessment of the performance of the Brazilian Government Chamber of Foreign Trade (Camex), which is a board of the Council of Government responsible for the formulation, implementation and coordination of the Brazilian trade policy. The study begins with a historical approach to the international trade and the Brazilian foreign trade, mentioning its origins, features and interfaces with the economic development of the country. Based on the approach aforementioned, several interviews were made with authorities, who have remarkable knowledge about the subject, in order to obtain their views, experiences and suggestions concerning the performance of Camex since its creation in 1995. The list of interviewees includes authorities that are currently responsibles for the conduct of the policy on foreign trade, representatives of the organized society, and authorities who were in important positions in this segment of the federal public administration, regarding both the Minister of State, as Director of Cacex and the Executive Secretary of Camex. The conclusions of the study indicate that the Camex has not been succeeding in fully exercise its mandate of formulate, implement and coordinate the foreign trade policy of Brazil. A combination of factors contributes to this situation, especially its small strutcure, the fact that some ministries compete in the segment of foreign trade ¿don't understand¿ Chamber¿s real purpose, and, at last, the absence of a political mandate"(words taken from Motta Veiga) that would fortify its existing legal mandate. Finally, the study suggests some changes in the current organizational modeling of Camex, especially in its hierarchical position in the federal public administration."

New evidence on trade liberalization and productivity growth

Although the subject of a large number of studies, the debate on the links between trade reform and productivity growth is still unresolved and most studies at the micro level have not been able to establish a relationship between the two phenomena. Brazil provides a natural experiment to study this issue that is seldom available: it was one of the closest economies in the world until 1988, when trade reform was launched, and intra-industry data are available on an annual basis before, during and after liberalization. Using a panel of industry sectors this paper tests and measures the impact of trade reform on productivity growth. Results confirm the association between the former and the latter and show that the magnitude of the impact of tariff reduction on the growth rates of TFP and output per worker was substantial. Our data reveal large and widespread productivity improvement, so that the estimations in this paper are an indication that liberalization had an important effect on industrial performance in the country. Cross-sectional differences in protection are also investigated.

Trade barriers and productivity growth: cross-industry evidence

This article investigates the impact of trade protection on the evolution of labor productivity and total factor productivity (TFP) of the Brazilian manufacturing sector. An annual panel-dataset of 16 industries for the years 1985 through 1997, a period that includes a major trade liberalization, was used. The regressions reported here are robust to openness indicator (nominal tari®s and e®ective protection rate were used), control variables and time period and suggest that barriers to trade negatively a®ects productivity growth at industry level: those sectors with lower barriers experienced higher growth. We were also able to link the observed increase of industry productivity growth after 1991 to the widespread reduction on exective protection experienced in the country in the nineties.

A politica de inserção do Panama no mercado latino americano de serviços

o estudo que agora apresentamos tem como objetivo identificar os fundamentos da política do governo do Panamá para sua inserção definitiva no mercado internacional de serviços e verificar sua atual contribuição na consolidação do país como centro fornecedor de serviços para o intercâmbio comercial entre os países da América Latina, o Caribe e o restante do mundo. Os processos observados e identificados foram analisados à luz de teorias de políticas públicas, desenvolvimento e integração econômica. Conclui-se, então, que as políticas adotadas pela República do Panamá e o desenvolvimento da infra-estrutura de serviços de exportação do país, ora identificados, têm uma participação significativa para a sua inserção na nova ordem mundial. Constituem-se estes fatores em canais eficientes de promoção, divulgação e fortalecimento da imagem da nação como fornecedora confiável de serviços internacionais.

Monopoly power and trade protection: cross- industry evidence

This paper investigates the impact of industry concentration on trade policy. Annual panel-databases of Brazilian industries for the years 1988 through 1994 were used. The regressions reported here are robust to openness indicator. concentration index, control variables and sample size, and suggest that the higher the concentration of a given industry the higher its leveI of trade protection. In the period of study the country experienced a major trade liberalization, but the results in the paper show that the reduction in protection was smaller in more concentrated sectors. Assuming that concentration is ;1 gCl()d proX\' for mOllopoh' po\\'er as it reduces the free-rider problem in coordinating a lobby the results in this paper indicates that interest groups with control over specific markets in fact are able to obtain policy advantages that reduce (international) competition.

Feasible multilateralism and the effects of regionalism

Recent research has underlined the efficiency of the GATT/WTO rules from the standpoint of politically motivated governments, emphasizing that the current multilateral rules are capable of delivering a politically efficient equilibrium. Such an equilibrium is, however, economically inef- ficient. Global free trade, in particular, is generally unattainable even in a fully cooperative world, provided that governments have distributive motivations. In such a context, we show that regional trade agreements can help move the world towards a welfare superior equilibrium. The reason is that, as members of regional trade agreements lower trade barriers against one another, they are induced to reduce their multilateral tariffs as well. Once we account for these endogenous changes–and only then–we find that regionalism can raise world welfare even in a fully cooperative (but political) world. We also find, however, that members are likely to gain "too much" from regional integration, thereby harming outsiders.

Trade diversion and declining tariffs : evidence from Mercosur

This paper empirically examines the alternative posed by Richardson (1993) to the traditional view that trade integration may exacerbate inefficiencies through trade diversion. Richardson’s hypothesis boldly predicts that trade diversion may actually cause tariffs to decline! The hypothesis is fundamentally attributable to the presence of a political component in the governments’ objective functions. A cross-sectionally rich data-set on trade and tariffs from the Mercosur-pact countries, primarily Argentina, is used. The evidence yields surprising conclusions about the validity of the political economy construct in models of trade integration.

Sustainable miracles : protection and competition in the Brazilian oil industry

It is often suggested that competition improves productivity, however, the underlying support for this idea is surprisingly thin. This paper presents a case study examining the e ects of a change in the competitive environment on productivity at the Petrobras, Brazil's state-owned oil company. Petrobras had a legal monopoly on production, re ning, transportation and importation of oil in Brazil until it was removed in 1995. Even though Petrobras continues to have a de facto monopoly, the end of legal monopoly labor productivity growth rate more than doubled. A growth accounting of the industry shows that between 1977 and 1993 output growth rate (and productivity growth rate) is explained by the accumulation of capital, while Total Factor Productivity (TFP) decreased. Between 1994 and 2000 labor productivity growth rate is completely explained by the growth rate of TFP. The results suggest that the threat of competition alone is su cient to improve productivity. They also provide evidence that restricting competition help cause Brazil's depression of the 1980s.