Latin American Trade Agreements

Latin American and Caribbean Trade Agreements: Keys to a Prosperous Community of the Americas is the essential reference guide for companies trading with Latin America and the Caribbean or wishing to use a country in the region as an export platform. This work fills the void in academic texts that are used to teach courses on economic integration in the Western Hemisphere. It provides a road map for the Obama Administration to launch an ambitious project designed to encourage economic growth, promote energy security, and reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions, while at the same time realistically meeting the development needs of Latin America and the Caribbean. Latin American and Caribbean Trade Agreements: Keys to a Prosperous Community of the Americas posits that the myopic focus of past United States administrations on free markets to spur economic development in the Western Hemisphere is not enough. A bolder and more ambitious project that also seeks to redress many of the deep-seated problems that have long plagued the region is required. The Community of the Americas proposed in this book rests upon the important work that has already been done at the sub-regional level in terms of economic and political reform, identifying infrastructure and human capital needs, and regulating migration. It provides a new and cohesive vision for U.S. policy in Latin America and the Caribbean.

For the first time, all the most important Latin American economic integration programs are explored in the same volume in English: the Latin American Integration System (ALADI); MERCOSUR; the Andean Community; the G-3 Accord between Colombia, Venezuela, and Mexico; and the Central American Integration System (SICA). Latin American Trade Agreements explains how all of these sub-regional programs operate and where the opportunities are for foreign direct investors and exporters. It provides concrete examples of companies using the integration projects as part of their strategic business planning for Latin America. It also discusses the many opportunities available in transportation infrastructure develop-ment and intra-Latin American logistics. The Appendices include English translations of the trade agreements and important rules and regulations. Latin American Trade Agreements not only focuses on the rules for trade in goods and services, but also examines how the sub-regional projects and each member state treat subjects as diverse as environmental protection, intellectual property rights, foreign direct investment, as well as labor and tax laws. This looseleaf is an asset to lawyers, trade specialists, and international strategic planners.

Trade agreements have uncontested relevance as essential instruments governing international trade, yet little attention has been directed towards explaining differences in their content. Deep Integration in Latin American Trade Agreements analyzes the structure, nature, and characteristics of deep integration in trade agreements established by Latin American countries after the crises of 1982 and until 2020 with their regional and extra-regional partners. Ninfa M. Fuentes-Sosa argues that deep integration can be disaggregated into its institutional, operative, and horizontal dimensions (which differ regarding their functions and application level). Empirically, she demonstrates that trade provisions can be mapped, measured, and allocated into their corresponding dimension, providing an understanding of the deep integration structure in Latin America. She claims that the current structure poses challenges for deepening regionalism at a broad scale. Countries working on specific areas over time could diminish obstacles that have prevented them from achieving deeper trade integration. Providing an operational definition and measures of deep integration, this book will be of great interest to scholars, graduate students, and policymakers working in the field of international political economy, trade, and trade politics.

This volume analyzes trade agreements in Latin America since the mid-1980s, and provides a theoretical framework that highlights the political-economic tradeoffs entailed in different trade strategies formulated and pursued by different countries in the region. It contains detailed, empirically grounded studies of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and the Mercosur block as a whole.

Latin America has a pivotal role to play in international trade negotiations. This book focuses on the key issues for Latin American countries' participation in trade negotiations on the shifting ground of expanding trade agendas, diversifying negotiation fora and emerging coalitions. Through analysis of the management of sectors, the management of competition and conflict and the interplay of interests and coalitions, Diana Tussie and a team of local and international experts unravel the strands of the complex web of trade negotiations.

The paper employs synthetic control method (SCM) to determine the impact of trade agreements for 64 Latin American country pairs in the period 1989-1996. The results suggest that trade agreements have markedly boosted exports in Latin America, on an average by 76.4 percentage points over ten years. However, there is variation across countries and agreements. The export gains due to trade agreements are lower than the world average comprising 104 country pairs in the period 1983-1995.

Analyzing the experience of Mexico under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), 'Lessons from NAFTA' aims to provide guidance to Latin American and Caribbean countries considering free trade agreements with the United States. The authors conclude that the treaty raised external trade and foreign investment inflows and had a modest effect on Mexico's average income per person. It is likely that the treaty also helped achieve a modest reduction in poverty and an improvement in job quality. This book will be of interest to scholars and policymakers interested in international trade and development.