Newly, I believe Roach is speaking in relative terms as he is comparing the economies of the four countries. He later notes that Brazil does have a healthy export component, although between the four countries, they come in 3rd in exports. Since Brazil has the lowest overall growth of the four countries this makes sense to me.
<<However, in recent years, Brazil’s external dependency has risen significantly, with the export share of its GDP more than doubling from 6.2% in 1996 to 14.9% in 2005. And primary products accounted for fully 34% of its total merchandise exports last year ...>>
