BRAZIL IN THE WTO: BALANCE AND PERSPECTIVES MARIANO FRANCISCO LAPLANE The nineties of the last century were a period of huge challenges for Bra zil. The frustra tion of Brazilian citizens with their experience of instabil­ity and stagnation during the eighties led to the implementation of major structural reforms, which bore hope of a renewal of economic growth. The strategy of promoting industrial development through high levels of protection for the domestic market, dominant since the fif­ties, was left behind, as were exchange-rate and fiscal incentives for exports, measures which had been used to address the crisis during the eight­ies. Brazil offered a more favorable treatment of foreign capital entering the country and adopted a relatively open commercial regime. The coun­try's participation in the WTO perfectly repre ­sented the new vision dominant in Brasilia for Brazil's insertion in the world of international commerce. Shortly after the end of the nineties a new fed­eral administration took charge, as Luis Inacio Lula da Silva became president. The time is now ripe to draw a balance of currently predominant visions of the Brazilian experience with more open markets and, in particular, with the WTO. The present article will take into account public opinion as well as the assumptions of experts on commercial issues and international affairs, with­out losing sight of the positions of members of the new administration. The expectations of public opinion Brazilian public opinion has paid a lot of attention to events in which Brazil was an interested party in commercial conflicts with other countries. Among those which were more intensively focu­sed on by the media, and hence were more expo­sed to public curiosity, one might mention the litigation with Canada on the subject of subsidies in both countries for the export of airplanes for regional passenger transportation. There are some other examples, like the imposition by the US of sanctions against Brazilian exporters(as well as exporters from other countries) of steel products. Or the conflict with multina tional pharmaceutical corporations which produce medicines distributed free of charge by the Brazilian government to HIV-infected persons, as well as the deadlock in the negotiations on barriers to and subsidies for agricultural products imposed by developed countries. The Brazilian experience in these cases has been variegated and helpful in building knowledge concerning the opportunities and limitations implied by the rules of the WTO for developing countries. In the case of exports of civil aircraft, the Brazilian public could follow closely the pro­cess through which the system used to finance these exports was forced to undergo several modifications before reaching conformity with