A Dependência do setor primário-exportador dos meios de produção do setor estrangeiro: uma análise das importações de insumos entre 2000 e 2020

Abstract

The present article is the result of a Scientific Initiation Project at UFPB, aiming to analyze the potential dependence of the Brazilian primary-export sector on the imports of foreign inputs and capital goods between 2000 and 2020. Since the 1990s, Brazil has experienced substantial deindustrialization, a country that, historically, has relied on the primary-export sector as an important driver of its economy. In this context, the study aims to analyze the effects of the deindustrialization process on the functioning of the primary-export sector. The present study investigated the import patterns of the primary-export sector, subdivided into four economic activities (Agriculture, Forestry, Logging, Livestock, and Fishing; Oil and Gas Extraction; Iron Ore Mining; Other Extractive Industries), over the first decades of the 21st century, and examined its relationship with the deindustrialization context. Based on the Marxist theory of dependency as a theoretical foundation, the study adopted a quantitative approach, using Investment Absorption Matrices and Input-Output Matrices provided by the Group of Industry and Competitiveness of the Institute of Economics at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (GIC/IE-UFRJ). The specific objectives of the present study were: to position deindustrialization as an ongoing process in the Brazilian economy; to understand the role that the primary-export sector plays in the accumulation dynamics of peripheral countries, especially in Brazil; and, finally, to conduct a quantitative analysis of the data on the importation of manufactured products and foreign investment absorption by the aforementioned sector. The main conclusions of this article indicate a greater use of foreign means of production in the primary-export sector's production and, therefore, may suggest an increase in the sector's dependence on inputs and capital goods from the international market. However, this was not uniformly presented, nor were there any indications that the sector had reached a critical situation. The results show a small change, especially in intermediate consumption.