ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the way in which Brazilian foreign policy reacted to the vicissitudes of the democratic transition and consolidation. It examines the evolution of Brazil's foreign policy, emphasizing the dynamics of expansion and retraction to which foreign policy was subject during the transition. The chapter analyses the impact of this process on the country's two most important international relationships, those with the United States and with Argentina. Associated with a late and dependent industrialization, the authoritarian period in Brazil coincided with a phase of significant economic growth, producing a qualitative and quantitative leap in productive capacity. Brazilian-US relations went through an equally tumultuous period in the area of multilateral trade, especially in the negotiations of the Uruguay Round of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). In 1990, with the changes of government in Brazil and Argentina, the economic policies of two countries became more compatible, and the decision was taken jointly to continue and even intensify the program.
