Pandemics and international trade dynamics: an analysis of the Bahia-Mercosur relationship from the perspective of exports and imports

Abstract

After the Second World War and with the globalization processes at the end of the last century, international trade relations have gradually gained greater importance, resulting in both an increase in world production and the emergence of economic blocs that sought to strengthen and dynamize these relations. One of these economic blocs created was the Common Market of the South (Mercosur) in 1991, having as members: Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay whose objective was to facilitate both economic relations between them and people. However, the year 2020 was marked by the emergence of the new coronavirus that directly affected the entire global trade flow due to restrictive measures. Thus, this article aims to analyze the dynamics of international trade between the state of Bahia and Mercosur through exports and imports and detect the pandemic effects on these variables. In order to fulfill the proposed objectives, in addition to an introduction to the study of the international economy, the emergence of Mercosur, and the economic evolution of Bahia, the databases of exports and imports of the Superintendence of Economic and Social Studies of Bahia (SEI) were used. ) and the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (MDIC) to understand Bahia's import and export agenda, and how they are related within Mercosur. The results obtained indicate that there are significant reductions in the main exporting sectors to Mercosur and small drops in imports.