Bilateral investment treaties (BITs) provide rules to the flow of foreign direct investment between
two countries. This type of agreement establishes the main terms and conditions under which
individuals and companies of one country can make investments in the jurisdiction of another
country. Brazil signed a number of BITs in the 1990s but did not ratify any of them. Since 2015,
the Brazilian government has signed several new agreements, of which two have been ratified and
are already in force. The other agreements seem to be following the same path towards ratification.
This thesis seeks to explain this change. It argues that three factors have been crucial in bringing
the success in ratification of this latest wave of agreements: 1) the reformulation of the investment
agreements from the traditional template of BITs to the new template of Cooperation and
Facilitation Investment Agreements (CFIAs); 2) the changing role of Brazil from an importer to
both an importer and an exporter of capital; and 3) the extensive political organization, both inside
and outside the government, to support the ratification of the agreements
