Latin American Integration Association Research Articles

Evolution of Mercosur intra-regional trade from 2016 to 2020

The first attempts at the Latin American integration process showed a highly pragmatic character, without many concerns for medium and long-term projects. The main concern was to expand intra and extra-regional trade. However, since the 1980s (the decade considered the lost decade for Latin America), when the external debt crises and the adjustment policies recommended by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) led the region to a higher poverty rate due to the social costs of such policies, Latin America has been rethinking its integration. The creation of LAIA (Latin American Integration Association), in 1980, replacing LAFTA (Latin American Free Trade Association), in 1960, and its sub-regional integration have changed Latin America’s economic growth trajectory from the 1990s. Within the scope of LAIA, Mercosur was created in 1991, with the objective of promoting intra and extra-regional trade expansion through the elimination of tariff barriers among its members, implementing a Common External Tariff. The full members of Mercosur are Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. The bloc also has associated members: Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana and Suriname and observer members, namely Mexico and New Zealand. This work was developed to verify whether Mercosur, with the elimination of tariff barriers between full members and the Common External Tariff, has been able to meet its main objective, which is to expand intraregional trade among its members. Therefore, the main objective was to verify whether there was trade expansion between the bloc's full partners between the years 2016 and 2020. The methodologies used for this purpose were descriptive statistics and literature review. Aiming to evaluate the annualized rate of change of trade in the period covered, it was decided to use the Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR), which is a differential of this research. The results showed that within the bloc, Brazil had Argentina as its main trading partner. It was observed that there was an expansion of intraregional trade between 2016 and 2018, followed by a considerable reduction of this trade during the period 2019-2020, but that Brazil still continued to be the member that obtained the largest intra-regional trade balances. Paraguay, in turn, did not show the same trend of commercial reduction for all other partners in 2019 and 2020. In addition, in 2020, even with the COVID 19 pandemic, Paraguay managed to increase its exports to Brazil and Argentina, showing a contrary trend only to their exports to Uruguay. Uruguay, in turn, expanded its imports from partners throughout the period, except for Paraguay in 2020, where its exports exceeded imports. With regard to Argentina, its exports to members began to fall in 2019 and increased in 2020, especially in relation to Brazil. The country also drastically reduced its imports from Brazil and Paraguay in 2019 and 2020, although it also considerably expanded imports from Paraguay

Economic Development of the Latin American Integration Association: Trends and Prospects

Relevance. Catch-up countries are at a disadvantage in the world economy and are forced to fight for world market share. For this purpose, they form political and economic alliances and associations designed to counter the aggressive policies of the developed countries. All this applies fully to countries that are members of the Latin American Integration Association (LAIA). In our opinion, the assessment of the position of the participating countries on the geopolitical map of the world deserves special attention.Purpose of the study consists in the formation of an author’s methodology for studying the economic development of countries that are members of the Latin American Integration Association and building a forecast in the medium term on the basis of statistical tools. Materials and methods. The study used general research methods, such as analysis, comparisons, historical, as well as mathematical and statistical, in particular tabular and graphical, descriptive statistics and elements of correlation-regression analysis. A set of these methods and algorithms made it possible to identify the patterns that have developed at the moment in the economies of the Latin American Integration Association countries, assess their positions regarding world leaders, and also build short-term development forecasts.Results. With considerable resources, the countries of the Latin American Integration Association have not been able to significantly increase the share of world GDP during the existence of the association, which throughout the period does not exceed 5%. Within the association, there is a considerable differentiation. So the dominant positions are occupied by Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, while the positions of outsiders, by a significant margin, are occupied by Uruguay, Ecuador and Cuba. The structure of the economies of the association countries is largely different from the developed countries: the former are dominated by manufacturing, while the latter are dominated by services. A causal analysis of the impact of industries on GDP per capita, conducted in two time slices in 1990 and 2019, showed that during this time the countries that are members of the association have not been able to reformat the structure of their economies, which does not allow successful competition with developed countries. An element of the scientific novelty of the study is the formation of a theoretical and methodological approach to the study of the economic development of the geopolitical structure, which is the Latin American Integration Association, as well as the testing of this approach based on the actual data of international organizations.Conclusion. The testing of the author’s methodology aimed at studying the economic development of LAIA member countries allows us to argue about the operability of the algorithm, which made it possible to establish the low efficiency of the integration policy of Latin American countries, which, despite the significant level of national wealth, does not allow us to form a trend towards economic growth, a decrease in dependence on the export of natural capital, and an increase in the standard of living of the population. Some research findings from the study can be used in training activities for the disciplines of “Macroeconomics”, “International Statistics”, “Geoeconomics”, “Econometrics”, as well as in the analysis of the joint dynamics of political and economic communities, associations and groups. In subsequent publications, an in-depth analysis of the causes of the economic decline in each member country of the association will be carried out, dominant factors affecting growth and GDP decline will be identified.

Do Trade and Investment Agreements Promote Foreign Direct Investment within Latin America? Evidence from a Structural Gravity Model

Latin America has experienced a surge in foreign direct investment (FDI) in the last two decades, in parallel with the ratification of major regional trade agreements (RTAs) and bilateral investment treaties (BITs). This paper uses the latest developments in the structural gravity model theory to study if the co-existence of BITs and two major regional agreements, Mercosur and the Latin American Integration Association (ALADI), exerts enhancing or overlapping effects on FDI for eleven countries in Latin America over the period 1995–2018. The study is novel as it accounts for variations in the degree of investment protection across BITs within Latin America by computing a quality index of BITs. It also explores the nature of interactions (enhancing/overlapping effects) between RTAs and BITs. The findings reveal that belonging to a well-established regional trade agreement, such as Mercosur, is significantly more effective than BITs in fostering intra-regional FDI. Phasing-in effects are large and significant and there is evidence of enhancing effects. Results within the bloc are heterogeneous: BITs exert a positive, but small effect, for middle income countries. However, BITs are not effective in attracting FDI in the case of middle to low income countries, unless these countries ratify BITs with a high degree of investment protection.

Control aduanero y el destino de las mercancías incautadas en la Dirección Distrital de Aduana Tulcán, periodo 2015 -2018

El siguiente proceso investigativo enfocado en el Control aduanero y el destino de las mercancías incautadas en la Dirección Distrital de Aduana Tulcán, periodo 2015-2018, partiendo de un enfoque en diferentes términos del Control Aduanero según La Organización Mundial de Aduanas (OMA), Convenio de Kyoto, La Asociación Latinoamericana de Integración (ALADI) y El Código Orgánico de la Producción, Comercio e Inversiones (COPCI), como el conjunto de medidas adoptadas por la Autoridad Aduanera con el objeto de asegurar el cumplimiento de todas las formalidades en respecto a la legislación, aplicación o ejecución de competencia o responsabilidad, por lo cual deberán someterse a los distintos operadores de comercio exterior y sobre las personas que entren y salgan del territorio aduanero. El enfoque aplicado al presente artículo científico es de carácter Teórico – Analítico en franca proyección hacia la generación de un análisis – síntesis de la temática tratada, mediante la metodología documental, y uso de herramientas estadísticas. Este sistema de estudio permitió recuperar información relevante de revistas científicas, páginas acreditadas, libros, entre otros. El Servicio Nacional de Aduana del Ecuador (SENAE), tiene como objetivo facilitar las operaciones de comercio exterior, del cual se obtuvo datos reales sobre el tema planteado, las técnicas que se utilizaron en los procesos operativos de control aduanero, se presentan los resultados de los controles efectuados en la Dirección Distrital de aduana Tulcán, análisis e interpretación de actas de aprehensión y resultado del paso ilegal y del incumplimiento de las formalidades aduaneras en el ingreso a territorio nacional en los años ya establecidos en la investigación. Finalmente, el objetivo de la investigación es dar a conocer el destino aduanero que se les da a las mercancías incautadas por la Dirección Distrital de aduana Tulcán, en consideración a los procesos jurídicos, análisis e informes de instituciones públicas relacionadas al control de calidad de productos para el consumo humano y la normativa nacional y supranacional.

A IMPORTÂNCIA DO MERCADO LATINO-AMERICANO E DA COMPETIÇÃO CHINESA PARA O DESEMPENHO RECENTE DAS EXPORTAÇÕES BRASILEIRAS DE PRODUTOS MANUFATURADOS

As exportações brasileiras de produtos manufaturados apresentam uma especialização geográfica bem demarcada, tanto em termos de volume quanto de composição e grau de sofisticação dos produtos. Para os produtos manufaturados, a América Latina se tornou o principal mercado desde os anos 1990, além de revelar algum grau de articulação produtiva entre as economias. Porém, ao longo dos anos 2000, a parcela de mercado de manufaturados do Brasil na região vem se reduzindo devido à perda de competitividade dos produtos brasileiros associada ao acirramento da concorrência chinesa na região e à erosão das preferências comerciais do Brasil na América Latina. O presente trabalho analisa o desempenho e as perspectivas das exportações brasileiras de manufaturados segundo seus principais destinos usando indicadores de comércio (de market share e de similaridade das pautas exportadoras), que sistematizam as informações acerca da especialização da pauta exportadora brasileira e da articulação produtiva do Brasil com seus principais parceiros. Tal análise evidencia a importância do comércio regional para as exportações de manufaturados do país, apesar da redução do market share do Brasil nesses mercados. A fim de aprofundar o entendimento das causas para essa evolução recente, são examinados as perdas e ganhos das exportações de manufaturados do Brasil na Aladi em relação à China, utilizando-se uma versão modificada da metodologia de constant market share (CMS).

Regional Integration in Latin America: Historical Developments, Current Challenges, Especially in Mercosur

Regional integration in Latin America has a long history dating back the wars for independence in the 19th century. Notwithstanding, there is no need, for our purposes, to go back to the autonomist struggles of Simon Bolivar and other political and military leaders at the beginning of the 19th century, and to their premature attempts to forge an alliance between the many former Spanish colonies being liberated, because those efforts were most of a political nature and did not result in any institutional innovation at that time. At the beginning of the Eighties, a new wave of democratization touched Latin America, with the return to civilian and elected regimes, particularly in Argentina (1983) and Brazil (1985), which signaled a new emphasis on economic integration. But the European model of a common market was too much ambitious for Latin American countries, which were in a de facto preferential trade area, with the signing, a few years earlier, of the second Montevideo Treaty (1980), performing a flexible bilateral trade network among the members of the Latin American Integration Association (ALADI). The change from ALALC to ALADI was permitted by a decision under the Tokyo Round of multilateral trade negotiations (1979), which enabled developing contracting parties of the GATT system to exchange more limited trade liberalization than previously disciplined by Article 24 of GATT, which settled the rules for exceptions to the most-favored-nation clause, under the free trade or custom union formats. Mercosur was created in 1991, and since 1999 it is undergoing a structural crisis.

Un Órgano de Solución de Controversias para la ALADI

The Latin American Integration Association (ALADI) was created by means of the Montevideo Treaty of 1980. Its creation is due, on the one hand, to the failure of the project to create a Latin American common market through the Latin American Free Trade Association (ALALC), which had been created through the Treaty of Montevideo in 1960. From that perspective, the function of ALADI was the preservation of the "historic heritage" of LAFTA, which is nothing more than giving effect beyond the late LAFTA to the partial agreements of trade liberalization that had been reached in the multilateral and bilateral rounds within the framework of that organization.

Regional versus global production networks: where does Latin America stand?

This article quantifies the effects of the Latin American Integration Association (LAIA) and the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) on the trade of intermediate goods and also on the trade of final goods. It is the first article to investigate whether increasing imports of intermediate goods from different regions to Latin America have led to higher exports of final and intermediate goods. The article uses sectoral data for trade in goods between 11 LAIA members over the period 1991–2008. The main results indicate evidence of increasing regional production networks, which have strengthened in the 2000s. Moreover, the findings show evidence of the emergence of global production networks, especially with respect to intermediate imports from China.

The effect of economic integration and institutional quality of trade agreements on trade margins: evidence for Latin America

This paper studies the effects of economic integration, as well as the institutional quality of existing trade agreements in Latin America, on the margins of trade. The analysis is performed on bilateral exports of goods from 11 member countries of the Latin American Integration Association (LAIA) over the period 1962–2009. The authors distinguish the effects of different levels of integration on trade margins and different “timing”; and they go further by considering the effect of institutional quality of trade agreements on different sectors. Their results provide evidence of the benefits of regional integration, which is in line with LAIA members’ development and industrialization objectives.

A comparison of international income inequality: an ordered probit model analysis

In this study, the ordered probit model with marginal effect was applied to examine the key elements that influence changes in the Gini levels. The empirical results indicated that export incentives and poverty have a positive impact on the Gini levels. Moreover, the marginal effect revealed that export incentives increase income inequality for countries with higher inequality and reduce inequality for those countries with a relatively even income distribution. Likewise, the study found that the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the EU countries move from inequality to equality more efficiently than countries in the Latin American Integration Association (LAIA).

Economic Integration In The Americas: 1975-1992

<span>Latin American countries renewed their interest in regional trading blocs during the 1980s. According to Salgado, this renewed interest took the form of two phases: 1984-87, and from 1986 on. This paper uses a gravity equation to examine Latin American and Caribbean trade flows to ascertain the effectiveness of the Central American Common Market, Andean Pack and Latin American Integration Association, and to identify the factors affecting Latin American integration. Geographic distances are adjusted for the level of infrastructure development in an attempt to better proxy economic distance. A Chow Test is used to test for Salgados two phases.</span>

Las desventuras de la ALADI, 1980-1983

All the information available up to December 1983 indicates that the Latin American Integration Association (ALADI) never took off, as well as that the buffering effect at the regional and national level on the economies of its member countries that individually and jointly suffer the consequences of the crisis current world has been null. These statements unfortunately refer to all the main aspects of the intraregional economic cooperation activities envisaged by the Montevideo Treaty, cooperation focused on trade, but never defined and based on partial actions that are not coordinated but supposedly convergent in the long term. And it is that in the attempt of an economic integration with the purpose of development and industrialization in the region, neither through ALALC nor ALADI has been able to establish a legal and institutional political infrastructure and the instruments congruent with their supposed medium and long-term objectives.

Trayectoria y agenda de ALADI

It is difficult for scholars of the political phenomena of economic integration to conceive a legal framework for regional cooperation that is less attractive, conceptually and instrumentally speaking, than that of the Latin American Integration Association (ALADI). The reasons for "justifying" this system are known, whose only indisputable merit (but quite debatable as an intrinsic merit) is that of its great "flexibility". Starting in September 1980, the same countries that, since February 1960, had timidly exercised a predominantly multilateral integrationist connection within the framework of ALALC, placidly surrendered to the development of a regional cooperation scheme governed without counterbalance by "flexibility ", now elevated to the category of "principle" by the Latin American legislator himself. That is why ALADI, ultimately, can only be defined by its results and not by the conceptual analysis of its instruments.

<b> Cronologia Analítica das Relações Externas do MERCOSUL </b> 10.5102/uri.v9i1.1376

The aim of this paper is to present an analytical timeline (with didactic purposes), specifically for researchers interested in the external relations of the Southern Common Market, with special emphasis in the last 15 years. We list the negotiations developed, the agreements reached and its major developments, regarding the trade liberalization program eventually adopted. The regional bloc's external relations are examined in four distinct spheres, but interrelated, which will be: the multilateral sphere under the auspices of the World Trade Organization (WTO); the hemispheric sphere, regarding the negotiations for the establishment of the Free Trade Area of the Americas, the intra-zone sphere, with respect to arrangements with the other member countries of the Latin American Integration Association, under which MERCOSUR is considered a sub-regional scheme integration and, finally, the extra-zone sphere, in which the negotiations with all other trading partners are developed.

Colombia y Venezuela: a repensar los acuerdos económicos para relanzar la integración bilateral

Este artículo realiza un balance de la integración colombovenezolana, resaltando la importancia de los acuerdos económicos en la solución de los diferentes desencuentros políticos que han tenido los dos países a lo largo del siglo XX y XXI, por la delimitación de las aguas marinas el caso de los Monjes, la seguridad en la frontera y las posiciones divergentes en la lucha contra el narcotráfi co, entre otras. Se arguye que son los tratados en materia económica relanzamiento de la zona de libre comercio 1991, el mercado común 1995 y los de complementación económica en los esquemas regionales como la ALADI o lo CAN, los que ayudarían a relanzar la integración comercial de bienes, servicios y capitales y por esta vía la integración bilateral en los campos políticos y sociales.

Purchasing power parity for 10 Latin American integration association countries: panel SURKSS tests

This empirical study applies panel SURKSS tests, proposed by Wu and Lee (2009), to investigate the properties of long-run Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) in a sample of 10 Latin American Integration Association (LAIA) countries over the period January 1980 to September 2008. The empirical results from several panel-based unit root tests indicate that PPP does not hold for the LAIA-10 countries under study; however, panel SURKSS tests indicate that PPP is valid for half of these LAIA-10 countries. These results have important policy implications for these LAIA-10 countries under study.

Who Invented Mercosur?

This article explores the genesis of the Common Market of the South (Mercosur), the regional integration scheme grouping Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay since 1991, and which Venezuela joined in 2006. The aim is to portray an accurate account of the diplomatic history of the foundation of Mercosur during the years 1989–1991. Methodologically, a case is made in favour of the use of oral history in the study of high politics. Argentina and Brazil's reading of the new international circumstances of the early 1990s are explored, and so are their respective international insertion strategies. The diplomatic negotiations leading to the 1991 Treaty of Asunción constitutive of Mercosur are dissected. The relationship between Mercosur and the so-called ACE-14 agreement concluded by Argentina and Brazil in the framework of the Latin American Integration Association is also illustrated, as are the negotiations to incorporate new members to the incipient common market. The final section suggests that, while there was an overall continuity in the integration project in the Southern Cone between 1985 and 1991, nonetheless Mercosur was a departure from previous objectives, timing and methodology. For good or ill, Mercosur was the creation of the neo-liberal governments of Presidents Menem of Argentina and Collor of Brazil and the result of broader changes at the international level.

Integración regional andina en salud

Despite their shared history, the Andean countries are socially and politically diverse, with heterogeneous health realities and complex integration processes. General developments such as the Latin American Free Trade Association and Latin American Integration Association have existed for decades, along with others of a regional scope, like the Andean Community of Nations, Caribbean Community, and Central American Common Market. The health field has a specific instrument in the Andean Region called the Hipólito Unánue Agreement, created in 1971. Integration processes have concentrated on economic aspects, based on preferential customs agreements that have led to an important long-term increase in trade. Less progress has been made in the field of health in terms of sharing national experiences, knowledge, and capabilities. Analysis of experiences in health has shown that integration depends on the countries' respective strengths and to a major extent on national political processes.

Specialization and Diverging Manufacturing Structures: The Aftermath of Trade Policy Reforms in Developing Countries

Trade barriers have been declining around the world over the last five decades. Countries reduced their tariffs unilaterally as well as concertedly in the framework of regional integration agreements. As a consequence, trade flows among economies have substantially intensified. According to economic theory, this should have had a significant impact on the countries' specialization patterns. However, to our knowledge, there is no direct robust econometric evidence on the effect of trade policy on the overall degree of countries' specialization. This paper aims at filling this gap in the literature. We focus on ten Latin American countries members of the LAIA (Latin American Integration Association) over the period 1985-1998. These countries are natural case studies because in the last two decades they implemented broad and comprehensive trade liberalization programs, both generally and preferentially, starting from relatively high tariff protection levels. Our econometric results suggest that reducing own MFN tariffs is associated with increasing manufacturing production specialization. Furthermore, we find that preferential trade liberalization and differences in the degree of unilateral openness have resulted in increased dissimilarities in manufacturing production structures across countries. These results are robust to the specialization measure being used, the correction for group-wise heteroscedasticity, cross-sectional correlation, serial correlation and endogeneity biases, and the inclusion of indicators to account for the real exchange misalignment prevailing in the region during the period under examination.

New Evidence on Long-Run Output Convergence Among Latin American Countries

This study assesses long-run real per capita output convergence among selected Latin American countries. The empirical investigation, however, is based on an alternative approach. Strong convergence is determined on the basis of the first largest principal component, based on income differences with respect to a chosen base country, being stationary. The qualitative outcome of the test is invariant to the choice of base country and, compared to alternative multivariate tests for long-run convergence, this methodology places less demands on limited data sets. Using annual data for the period 1960–2000, strong convergence is confirmed for the Central American Common Market. However, an amended version of the test confirms weaker long-run convergence in the case of the Latin American Integration Association countries.