ABSTRACT
The aim here is not to discuss the impacts of globalisation and competitiveness, but rather to show how they served as a contextual/background factor that drove port reform efforts. By the late 1980s, most Latin American ports faced crises in almost every aspect of their activities – planning, investment, productivity, costs – often reinforced by macroeconomic factors such as public indebtedness and fiscal crisis (Sanchez and Pinto 2015). As a result, many Latin American governments decided to withdraw from direct management of ports, initiated reforms and often devolved port operations to the private sector. The combined forces of globalisation and liberalisation saw the previous port governance model of ‘service ports’ (fully run by the public sector) replaced by the ‘landlord port’ model (publicly owned assets/terminals that are leased and operated by specialist or multiservice private firms). Brazil was not immune to the pressures of globalisation and international competition nor the prevalent fashion for transferring port operations to private entities. All my interviewees were cognisant of the vital urgency of addressing the issues raised by market opening and the intensified international competition facing Brazilian firms. One of my youngest interviewees put this rather eloquently: ‘Brazil was the whole world to the older generation. 1990 was a watershed. . . . Today, we know that it is useless to have industry in good shape, if ports are not. After all, Brazil is no longer an isolated island’.7 Whereas earlier generations of Brazilian industrialists may have had little idea about what a port or dock even looked like, in the 1990s many industrialists became port users (exporters or importers). Unsurprisingly, they began to take a growing interest in the condition of Brazilian ports. The Head of the Foreign Trade Department at FIESP summed up the impact of globalisation and consequent need to improve ports in the following words:
We at FIESP are in a hurry to change things. Globalisation of the world economy means industry must keep up with its competitors. Brazil loses out every time our industries miss an opportunity to sign an international contract. We must stress the importance of quality and timely delivery of our exports. We must take good care of the reputation of this special trademark: Brazil.8
