The article analyzes how actors from the business sector (CEB) and organized civil society (REBRIP) worked to defend their interests in order to influence Brazil's international trade negotiation strategy-making between 1995 and 2010. The study also seeks to understand the extent to which non-state actors succeeded in affecting the Brazilian government's definition of its official positions and priorities. The main conclusions are the following: a) a convergence of interests between business sectors and institutional actors vis-à-vis the choice of trade negotiation forums; b) the essentially protectionist profile of interests coordinated by CEB in the main negotiations; c) the role of REBRIP, organized primarily in the field of challenging the principles of the negotiating strategy itself, with only a marginal direct contribution to shaping the agenda for negotiating regional or multilateral trade agreements; and d) the involvement of REBRIP as an element for democratization of the foreign trade policy agenda in Brazil.
Brazilian foreign policy; trade negotiations; non-state actors; decision-making process
