Abstract
Protectionist policies were considered one of the pivotal features of the import industrialization process in Latin America. In this paper the effects of protectionist policies are assessed in terms of the principal macroeconomic variables, productive structure and external trade composition; also, ECLAC's perspective on the import substitution process is discussed. The main conclusions are that regional protectionist policies were spontaneous, and their effects were limited due to the generalized protection that took place and the government's commitment to price stability.
Highlights
Latin America underwent an import substitution industrialization that induced profound structural change in production and external sectors
LA countries ended up as integrationist economies, while SEA countries have been classified as more independent economies (Amsden, 2001, p. 14)
The agriculture sector showed an inverse trend. It was high during the first years of the ISI period, but after the intense stage of the import substitution industrialization process began, together with export promotion policy, the agriculture share in the total GDP dropped dramatically, by half of its total value during the 1965‐69 and 2000‐2005 periods
Summary
Latin America underwent an import substitution industrialization that induced profound structural change in production and external sectors. The agriculture sector showed an inverse trend It was high during the first years of the ISI period, but after the intense stage of the import substitution industrialization process began, together with export promotion policy, the agriculture share in the total GDP dropped dramatically, by half of its total value during the 1965‐69 and 2000‐2005 periods (see Table 2). Taking a look at the three largest LA countries, we find that Argentina showed the higher industrial value participation in GDP during the 1960s and 1970s, followed by a decrease in the 1980s, and reaching its lowest levels in the 1990s and 2000s, below levels in Mexico and Brazil. Unemployment and low wages continued to be the unresolved issues, which drastically deteriorated in the neoliberal years (see Levy, 2007, and Ross, 1994, on Mexico)
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