The economies within the west-central region of Brazil primarily produce raw materials (such as soy, corn, cotton, and sugarcane, among others) that they successfully introduced into international markets, especially starting from the 1990s. Until 2010, the main trading partner for the Brazilian west-central economies was the European Union. However, starting in 2010, the most significant trading partner shifted to consist of China, Hong Kong, and Macao. The increasing agricultural export flow was countered by a growing surge in imports of manufactured goods originating from this Asian region. For this reason, Murilo José De Souza Pirez analyzes in this article whether this trade specialization pattern could have led to a deterioration of the terms of trade.
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