Qualidade e diferenciação das exportações brasileiras e chinesas: Evolução recente no mercado mundial e na ALADI

This paper aims to evaluate the profile of Brazilian trade structure in recent years through a methodology that seeks to assess the relative quality of trade. The paper not only evaluates the quality of Brazilian total exports, but also the exports to ALADI, a region where traditionally Brazilian exports have a higher share of manufactured products. Finally the Brazilian position is appraised in a comparative way with Chinese exports. The paper is structured in three sections besides the introduction and conclusion. The first provides a brief review of the literature on the topic of quality and differentiation of exports, highlighting studies that have found the existence of extensive quality differences on traded products, inferred from differences on unit value of bilateral flows of trade. The second section applies one of the methods discussed in the first section to the exports of Brazil and China, showing the development of exports from both countries in segments of quality. In the third section the article discusses trade in China and Brazil with the countries of ALADI, trying to assess the extent to which competition between the two countries has increased in the region.