Up And Coming

After Canada and Mexico, Brazil is the third largest market in the Western Hemisphere for U.S. exports. In 1995, U.S. exports to Brazil totaled $11.4 billion. The country recently took steps to make exporting there easier--most notably, by lowering import duties on more than 5,500 items in 1994 and implementing an economic stabilization plan, which included the introduction of a new currency. Inflation dropped as a result.

All this has opened the Brazilian market to U.S. firms. Particularly hot are companies that deal in computers and peripherals, computer software, plastic materials and resins, telecommunications, and electrical power systems.

This article was originally published in the January 1997 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Up And Coming.