Brazil is the most populous economy in Latin America with the second highest GDP among the emerging BRIC economies, after China, and the second per capita GDP among the BRIC economies after Russia. The objective of this book is to provide a thorough historical, statistical, and institutional description of the factors that affect and are affected by Brazil’s international trade and integration with the world economy. It includes a most recent account of what is presently going on in Brazil and the type of economy from which Brazil is emerging. The authors use Brazil as a case study and explain both the process and the outcome of international economic integration by analyzing in each chapter a different contributing factor to the benefits and costs from Brazil’s economic interdependency with the world economy. This makes the reading of this book extremely valuable. The topics addressed in this book will increase the reader’s awareness of the institutional, economic, and culturalforces that shape the dynamism of Brazil’s international trade and integration with the world economy, and will continue to do so in future years.