Política de offset em compras governamentais: Uma análise exploratória

Offset agreements represent a mechanism widely used by national governments, from which they pursue economic, commercial, industrial and technological benefits. It is the most popular and sophisticated counter-trade instrument, underpinning government procurement policy, involving a wide range of compensatory activities, such as licensed production, co-production, subcontracted production, investment, and technology transfer. National governments require these compensatory activities to foreign firms hired to supply high-cost goods and services, which confers high bargaining power on purchasing governments. Estimates of the magnitude of the offset arrangements presented in the literature are heterogeneous but vary between 5% and 30% of the total value of international transactions, corroborating the importance of this topic. The objective of this study is to contribute to the understanding of this policy scarcely explored by Brazilian literature, elucidating some issues that permeate it, such as adopted mechanisms, intended objectives, difficulties faced towards the achievement of goals, regulatory aspects, historical, military and civil offset. From the methodological point of view, this study is eminently qualitative, exploratory and descriptive, supported by bibliographical and documentary research.