, Columnist
Trump Creates a Trade Opening for Brazil
One of the world’s most closed economies would benefit greatly from reform.
Ready for a trade takeoff.
Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
President Michel Temer’s decision to send troops into Rio de Janeiro officially killed not only Brazil’s pension reform, but also remaining hopes that he might tackle the litany of structural changes to the tax, labor, education and regulatory systems that economists and investors see as the country’s economic salvation.
Yet these now-defunct reforms aren’t the only way to bolster growth. Trade matters as much or more for juicing gross domestic product, as the influx of goods, services and competition can help attain the economic holy grail of rising productivity. And given the U.S. protectionist pullback, opening to the world could, for once in Brazil, be politically popular in this election year.