The recent experience of establishing trading companies in Brazil was inspired by the Japanese model, and has been viewed with criticism and hopes. While in Japan these companies derived from a sIow historical evolution, the seeds of which go back to the seventeenth century, in the countries of centralized economy the type was created in the present century, based upon an economic concept where production and marketing are seen individually. In such economies, State trading enterprises prevail in the field of foreign trade. The objective of this study is to assess the performance of such companies, from the standpoint of the results achieved since they were established and up to 1978. The authoress was concerned not in making an appraisal of accounting and financial results, but in examining the contribution said enterprises have brought to Brazilian foreign trade, against the objectives determining their establishment.