This chapter discusses the challenges and opportunities faced by Brazilian firms seeking to increase their presence in international markets and the role that skilled labour plays in this process. On the one hand, access to new markets for exporting firms in upper-middle-income countries like Brazil can potentially create employment opportunities and drive wages up. Using firm-level data, we show that exporting firms in Brazil pay higher salaries and hire more workers than non-exporting ones. On the other hand, import-competing sectors are subject to stronger competition from abroad, which can destroy jobs and drive wages down. Moreover, the process of international-ization in Brazil has fostered a “re-primarization” of exports, which may militate against a more inclusive and sustainable development model. Countries like Brazil do not have a large pool of inexpensive labour and are therefore not competitive in the unskilled labour-intensive stages of global value chains. Yet, differentiated and high-value-added exports could also be achieved by Brazilian domestic firms without relying on labour cost advantages. However, the production of high-value-added, export-oriented goods calls for skilled labour, sophisticated machines and high-quality inputs. This is because such exports generally require an upgrading of product quality and improvements in business operations. We explore these relationships on the basis of firm-level survey data, establishing links between export markets and firm/industry attributes. Finally, we review the challenges faced by firms when it comes to integrating and developing skilled labour, and consider how government policies and business strategies could tackle these.