SAO JOSE DOS CAMPOS, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazil's barriers to international trade are limiting its growth potential and could hamper a huge infrastructure push at the center of President DilmaRousseff's industrial agenda, the head of the U.S. Commerce Department said in a Tuesday interview.

Acting Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank suggested the advantages given to Brazilian industries through import taxes and restrictions on government-led investments may even slow the development of globally competitive companies.

"I think that some of the local content requirements and some of the higher tariffs in Brazil impede their long-term growth," said Blank in the midst of a Latin American trade mission that continued to Colombia later on Tuesday. "There are opportunities for them to interact with international partners in a way that creates international firms here."

Blank and executives from more than a dozen U.S. companies were visiting Brazil to offer goods and services for an estimated 250 billion reais ($125 billion) of spending on roads, rails and ports in coming years.

U.S. exports to Brazil have surged in recent years as a stronger local currency and a growing middle class boosted consumer spending, but trade between the countries stagnated in 2012 - even as U.S. exports to the rest of the world expanded.

The Brazilian government's willingness to pay as much as 25 percent more for local goods is one example of the industrial policy that critics blame for making Brazil the most closed major economy in the hemisphere. Regulations also mandate minimum levels of Brazilian content in new drilling rigs for state-run oil firm Petrobras (PETR4.SA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

"You see some of that in all the infrastructure projects as well," said Blank. "You want to make sure you've got the best people involved in those projects. If they're Brazilian, that's great and you should certainly go there first. But if they're overseas, you want to bring them in and then transfer some of those skills into Brazil."

In a visit to an Embraer SA (EMBR3.SA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) assembly line, Blank held up the local planemaker, the world's third-largest airline supplier, as an example of what Brazilian companies can do with unfettered access to a competitive global supply chain.

"This is a model that I would recommend to other companies that want to expand internationally," said Blank. "They've been really concerned with staying on the cutting edge of innovation. That's what you need to keep the global markets open."

Executives from one of Embraer's longtime suppliers, Iowa-based Rockwell Collins Inc (COL.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), attested to the planemaker's even-handed approach to sourcing, without preference for origin.

"We don't see that kind of bias at Embraer," said Nelson de Aquino, a managing director for Rockwell Collins in Brazil. "It's a company that really tries to pick the supplier that best fits the program. That's one of the reasons for its success."

Blank wraps up her Latin American trade mission in Panama on Friday, finishing her last trip as acting secretary before stepping down at the end of the month, after the nomination of Hyatt heiress Penny Pritzker as Commerce chief.