In contrast to the international literature, in Brazil, the defense of public intervention for the promotion of industrial activity is very often associated to the improvement of our external accounts. This article exa-mines possible links between trade policy and industrial policy. It discusses the rationality of macro and micro arguments and shows that, in the one hand, there is serious theoretical and logical flaws in the defense of industrial policy as a devise to increase trade surplus. On the other hand, from the micro standpoint, there is no firm evidence supporting this type of intervention and the theoretical arguments do not apply. The article also studies the international experience and argues that it is doubtful if the fast growth and the expansion of the flow of international trade observed in Korea, for instance, were caused by industrial policy.
industrial policy; international trade; market failure
