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exchange rate movements and the capital account of the balance of payments”, 484left the Brazilian economy increasingly vulnerable to international political andeconomic changes, and to the exigencies of international finance. Thus, theBrazilian analysts, Vigevani and Cepaluni, argue that Cardoso’s foreign policy“sought to internalize, absorb, and consolidate the liberal changes that globalizationbrought to international society during the 1990s, in contrast with the failure of theCollor de Mello administration and the hesitancy of the Itamar Francoadministration in this regard”. 485 In spite of Collor conducting far-reachingeconomic liberalisation, this was not seen to ‘pay off’ with regard to Brazil’srelations with the US. The country was still placed on the US Trade Representative’s(USTR) ‘watch list’ in 1991 for its position on the manufacturing of pharmaceuticalproducts under patent. 486The overarching premises of Cardoso’s foreign policy posture were: to increaseBrazilian participation in the framing of international norms and regimes in order toinstitutionalise the country’s external environment as far as possible, with Brazilianinterests in mind (with MERCOSUL having a central role); and, extendingopportunities for trade with the largest international markets. This meant that‘legalisation’ of the international environment – both by Brazil’s increasingadherence to international regimes, and by its increased participation in theformulation of such regimes – would provide Brazil with an “international legalreference point” 487 . This move ostensibly sought to remove ‘politics’, at leastsuperficially, from Brazil’s international actions, thus maintaining its good relationswith as many nations as possible. By way of example, Brazil has famously been oneof the states parties to have made most frequent recourse to the Dispute SettlementMechanism (DSM) of the WTO.In keeping with the first premise, even the institutionalisation of Mercosul was leftto wane relative to the higher priority of institutionalising the rapidly evolving global484 Maria de Lourdes Rollemberg Mollo and Alfredo Saad-Filho, “Neoliberal EconomicPolicies in Brazil (1994-2005): Cardoso, Lula and the Need for a DemocraticAlternative”, New Political Economy, 11, No.1 (March 2006).485 Vigevani and Cepaluni, Changing Times, 53.486 Ibid., 40.487 Ibid., 56.202