The influence of capital origin on Brazilian foreign trade patterns

This article aims to determine whether the geographical pattern of the external trade of foreign-owned enterprises in Brazil differs from that of domestic enterprises and whether, in the case of foreign enterprises, the region of origin of their capital is an important factor in determining that pattern, both in terms of the origin and destination of their imports and exports and with regard to the technological content of the pattern. The methodology employed was panel analysis, applied to a representative set of enterprises, using trade data broken down by region for 1989, 1997 and 2000.