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Abstract
This paper aims at examining the relation
between the international trade and the environment,
particularly focused on sensitive agribusiness sectors. It
consists on an empirical test to the conflicting positions
supported by economists, some following the traditional
approach (trade-off or neoclassical), while others
supporting the Porter’s hypothesis, which considers that
impacts of the stricter environmental regulation can
benefit the trade competitiveness. A Heckscher-Ohlin-
Vanek model was applied to net exports as the
dependent variable. The agricultural products analyzed
were total agriculture, rice, maize, soybean, wheat, dairy
and swine; run for 97 countries, divided as developing
and developed, in a cross-section approach. This
modeling allows including the environmental
endowment as explanatory variables. Moreover the
Environmental Performance Index (Esty et al, 2008) was
also tried as explanatory variables in order to catch any
effect of the environmental regulation on the trade
patterns. Results were not conclusively as they show that
the net exports of the selected products, considered
environmentally sensitive, can be affected even
positively or negatively (neoclassical approach) by the
environmental regulation. The results depend on the
products. A remarkable outcome to highlight is that the
dummy for developing countries and developed
countries was significant, pointing that for rice, for
example, it makes difference being a developing country,
as well as it does for wheat, being a developed country.