They feel they have survived and overcome harsh business environment and want to operate in risky markets like Brazil. Some of them benefited from privatization or part-privatization. The current government dislikes the notion of privatization, which tends to improve businesses. But it likes national champions to succeed abroad. A government minister wrote the World Economic Forum in 1996 that it was not in the interest of the government for Brazilian companies to expand abroad. He said that capital was limited and they wanted to create local jobs. Brazil's laws also make the sending of profits from foreign subsidiaries back to Brazil impossible. They also refuse to recognize losses incurred abroad in company accounts. Some of the Bolivian assets of foreign investor Petrobras were nationalized by Brazil's president, Evo Morales. Multinationals are likely to encounter similar obstacles, but commodity producers, consumers or traders can be sure that their built-in comparative advantage...
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