Latin America's Trade Research Articles

Spatial patterns of landside trade impedance in containerized South American exports

The paper addresses claims implicating higher domestic transportation costs as a significant barrier to Latin America's trade and economic integration - and the region's inadequate transportation infrastructure as the primary cause. The relative “trade space” for U.S.-bound containerized shipments is delineated via reverse spatial interaction modeling. Reconfiguration and reverse calibration of the doubly constrained spatial interaction model is used to derive functional distances between origins and ports of export, as a means of estimating a Trade Impedance Quotient (TIQ) for trade flows at the scale of the continent. Global and local statistics of spatial autocorrelation are then used to analyze the spatial pattern of trade impedance. With this approach, the analysis of containerized flows establishes the existence, extent, location, and spatial distribution of discrepancies in South American landside trade impedance. A large share of trade flows have trade impedance that is disproportionate to distance. Trade impedance at origins is spatially clustered for the total dataset and randomly distributed for commodity segments, and randomly distributed at destinations. Potential focus areas for high trade impedance are identified.

Focus: Latin America's trade union landscape

Focus: Latin America's trade union landscape

Focus: Latin America's trade union landscape

ers in the political coalitions that controlled the State. For example, the General Confederation of Workers, in Argentina, and the Confederation of Mexican Workers became the strongest pillars, respectively, of the Peronist Party and the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Venezuela, Argentina and Mexico had strong labour movements closely allied to the ruling political parties during the mid / late 20th Century. Both Brazil and Argentina provided for a State-imposed, top-down trade union structure. Cuba’s state socialism provided an ideological counterpart but it also built union structures in close alliance with the State. While these models incorporated trade unionism within certain parameters they also restricted union rights, insisting that public sector workers organise separately, or restricting public sector organising rights. Public sector unions in Brazil, for example, had no legal framework for organising or bargaining in this period1 . With the restoration of democracy and the 1988 Constitution public sector unions in Brazil then acquired a broad sweep of Constitutional rights, although due to a lack of legal enactments the courts have subsequently chipped away at these freedoms, creating an overall much more complex pattern than in the private sector. These models produced at first growth and stability, but ultimately debt, inflation, and corruption. Military rule of one form or another followed corporatism in several countries. Towards the latter half of the 20th Century neoliberal market reforms began to be implemented as debt-ridden corporatist economies stalled and countries experimented with, or were forced to accept, IMF-promoted strategies such as privatisation and liberalisation. Where these reforms saw unemployment rise and social benefits fall, matched with the loss of food and energy subsidies , social unrest followed, and was put down brutally in a last gasp of corporatist authoritarianism , as in Venezuela in 1989, when police equipped with what the Inter-American Court of Human Rights described as ‘assault weapons’, ended a protest demonstration by killing at least 276 people, including seven children. In other countries throughout the region violence and conflict also continued as wealthy land-owners and right-wing interests (in some cases back up by US military intervention) clashed with leftist guerrilla movements seeking to promote revolutionary socialism. These conflicts produced dreadful violence and in many cases have now subsided (Colombia’s paramilitaries have – in theory if not in practice – disbanded, and both of the country’s guerrilla movements are now negotiating with the authorities in a peace process). Since the late 1990s the region has experimented with a distinctive blend of socialist politics, dubbed ‘21st Century Socialism’, and promoted A long history underwrites conflict between landless peasants, indigenous coca farmers, traditional miners, and multinational companies and the State INTERNATIONAL union rights Page 24 Volume 23 Issue 1 2016 DANIEL BLACKBURN is the Director of ICTUR. He holds an MA in human rights and globalisation and has worked on international trade union rights for nearly two decades, prior to which he qualified as a barrister T he regional power balance in the Americas, long tilted towards the North, is changing: Brazil, despite a troubled recent past that saw the country experience economic stagnation and a crisis sufficient to warrant an IMF loan has been on a relentless upwards trajectory, and is the world’s seventh largest economy. Argentina, which defaulted on debt repayments, similarly posted extraordinary economic recoveries over recent years, and both have been notable for their efforts to increase social spending and to tackle serious problems of poverty. Two stark facts about the history of the Americas are key to understanding the evolution of the modern region. The first of these is that the region was largely settled by forceful conquest: in distinct waves, indigenous peoples’ communities were decimated, and their land claims buried beneath the complexity of European legal and commercial manoeuvring. Many were brought to the Americas against their will as part of the transatlantic slave trade: more slaves were brought to Brazil than to any other country or region; Brazil was also the last nation in the Western hemisphere to formally abolish slavery in 1888. These histories underwrite contemporary disputes between movements of landless peasants, indigenous coca farmers, traditional and artisanal miners, and the modern nation State and multinational resource extraction and land...

Trans-Atlantic relations in the Southern Cone: A common security agenda

The countries on both shores of the South Atlantic Ocean have often looked more to the north for solutions to their socio-economic and security challenges than to their counterparts across the ocean. This approach has not only resulted in mutual neglect but has also exacerbated threat perceptions among neighbours. The establishment of the Mercusor (the Common Market of the South) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) for the Latin American and Southern African regions respectively, signals the awareness of the commonness of challenges and the need for regional solidarity. Through these sub-regional arrangements, inter-state tensions have been reduced drastically but intra-state conflicts still pose the greatest threat to regional stability. However, both regional organisations have 'inward-looking' agendas. Trans- Atlantic exchanges remain peripheral and minimal. Measured in terms of trade flows, for instance, between the two continents, Africa's total exports to and imports from Latin America in 1995 were slightly over two percent of Africa's overall trade. Similarly, Latin America's trade with Africa amounted to just one percent of her overall trade value.

Substitutability and Protectionism: Latin America's Trade Policy and Imports from China and India

This article examines the trade policy response of Latin American governments to the rapid growth of Chinese and Indian exports in world markets. To explain more protection in sectors where a large share of imports originates in China and India, the 'protection for sale' model is extended to allow for region-specific degrees of substitutability between domestic and imported varieties of a good. The results suggest that more protection toward Chinese and Indian goods can be explained by the higher substitutability of Chinese and Indian goods with domestic varieties. The data support the model, which performs better than the original protection for sale framework in explaining Latin America's structure of protection.

Sowing strategic alliances in the Americas

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of increasing trade and investment relations between China and Latin American economies. The paper focuses on the threats and opportunities that permeate this relationship.Design/methodology/approachThe paper surveys existing literature and secondary data in Spanish, Portuguese, and in English to investigate the different ramifications of this dynamic relationship between China and Latin American economies.FindingsAfter analyzing trade and investment trends and data, it is clear that Latin American economies must make changes to increase their participation in the Chinese market. Direct involvement with China is inherently risky, however, the opportunities obviously make the alliance necessary. Latin American economies are under increasing pressure to revamp their business environments and to implement long‐term strategies in order to compete more efficiently with China, domestically and in third‐markets. China has showed Latin American economies that investments in education, R&D, innovation, infrastructure, and friendly business policies, both facilitate and foster the creation of new competitive advantages.Originality/valueThis paper highlights and contributes to a better understanding of the ongoing challenges and opportunities permeating the Chinese Latin America's trade and investment relationship, as well as a indicating a number of areas for further study.

Does Tariff Liberalization Promote Trade? Latin American Countries in the Long-Run (1900-2000)

This paper estimates the effect of trade liberalization on import performance of selected Latin American countries (which account for about 85 per cent of total Latin America imports). The novelty of this study is that it applies a long-term approach covering the whole XX century using times series and panel data analyses. The empirical exercise shows that the relationship between (lower) tariffs and import growth in Latin America cannot be taken for granted, as it often happens in the literature, and whenever it exists, it is not always quantitatively substantial. In particular, our analysis shows the existence of a long run relationship between tariffs and imports only from the second half of the XX century. It follows that trade liberalization appears effective in fostering Latin America's trade growth only when integrated within a wider process, implying a multilateral and negotiated approach to trade policy. In this sense, multilateral and regional agreements appear to have played a key role not only through tariff reduction but remarkably thanks to the creation of a rule-based system governing global trade relations, through which uncertainty was reduced and the spread of best practices promoted. This result would confirm the thesis of those who endorse the existence of a formalized trading system to guarantee tariff liberalization and foster trade growth.

Introduction: New Studies/New Organizations; Labor Organization in Latin America and Beyond

This special issue of International Labor and Working-Class History seeks to understand how Latin America's trade unions and other workers' organizations have responded during the last three decades to the wholesale reorganization of their economies and polities, and how the history of worker organizations in southern Africa in this era is strikingly similar, despite surface differences in political and cultural context. In Latin America, workers faced monetary stabilization and neoliberal policies; the globalization of trade, finance, and production; as well as civil wars and military regimes that eventually gave way to civilian rule. From approximately 1930-1970, Latin America's modern labor move ments became powerful social and political actors that grew with industrializ ation and the rise of proto-welfare states. Today, the picture is starkly different. With few exceptions, decades of military rule and civil war, debt crisis and hyperinflation, globalization and neoliberal policies have left Latin America's traditional labor organizations and allied political parties severely weakened. During these same decades, new movements organized around a spectrum of social identities (e.g. race and ethnicity, gender, sexuality, residen tial status, and access to land) have taken center stage in struggles for social justice, organizing working people in new ways. We seek to trace the complex pathways through which workers and their organizations got from there to here, and to examine the novel and innovative ways workers have responded to complex challenges on multiple fronts. In a previous special issue focusing on globalization and the Latin American workplace {ILWCH 70), we and our fellow contributors analyzed how government adoption of neoliberal policies as well as the broader phenom enon known as globalization had affected workers, and to a lesser extent, unions. There, we observed that the combined effects of the debt crisis, public policies favoring market competition and private enterprise, and changing global cor porate policies had eroded job quality, transformed the organization of work, and affected individuals and families involved with international migration. In this issue, that economic and social history forms the crucial context for the largely organizational and political story that we and our fellow contrib utors wish to tell. A key part of that story, however, is the evolution of

Substitutability and Protectionism: Latin America's Trade Policy and Imports from China and India

This paper examines the trade policy response of Latin American governments to the rapid growth of China and India in world markets. To explain higher protection in sectors where a large share is imported from these countries, we extend the `protection for sale\' model to allow for di®erent degrees of substitutability between domestically produced and imported varieties. The extension suggests that higher levels of protection towards Chinese goods can be explained by high substitutability between domestically produced goods and Chinese goods, whereas lower levels of protection towards goods imported from India can be explained by low substitutability with domestically produced goods. The data supports the extension to the `protection for sale\' model, which performs better than the original speci¯cation in terms of explaining Latin America\'s structure of protection.

European integration and Latin American trade

Difficult as it is to forecast the magnitude of the impact of the Single European Market (SEM); on the rest of the world and on the European Community (EC); itself, the predominant feeling is one of concern, especially in the developing countries. This article seeks to determine how the completion of the SEM may affect Latin America's exports to the Community, using basically a short- and medium-term analytical approach. This is because a series of elements make it possible to predict with some confidence that the deepening of Community integration will take more time than originally foreseen. Especially noteworthy among these elements is the need for the EC to carry out an economic adjustment, for which purpose it will be necessary to coordinate the macroeconomic policies of its member countries more effectively and to resolve various important political problems, starting with the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty. In any event, it is reasonable to assume that, in the long run, the economic implications of the SEM for the rest of the world, including Latin America, will be positive. Section I of the article discusses the most probable effects of the deepening of European integration on the EC itself and on the rest of the world in the short and medium term. Section II examines the structural weakening of trade links between Latin America and the Twelve in recent decades and identifies the key reasons for this phenomenon, while Section III summarizes the effects that the SEM may have on Latin America's trade in the foreseeable future, which, unlike the Single Market's positive impact in the long term, may not be beneficial for Latin America.

United States policies and the Latin American economies

Introduction by Werner Baer and Donald V. Coes to Brady to Chance? Tinkering with the Latin American Debt Crisis by David Felix and John Caskey United States Policies and Latin America's Trade and Debt by Werner Baer and Donald V. Coes Economic Growth and External Debt: Some Analytical Macroeconomic Issues for the Baker Plan by Paul Beckerman Privatization and the State Sector by William Glade Economic Performance of Public Enterprises in Latin America: Lessons from Argentina and Brazil by Melissa H. Birch United States Policies and the Labor Sector in Latin America by Russell E. Smith Debt Servicing and Its Impact on Financial Markets in Latin America by John H. Welch U.S. Policy and the Prospects for Latin American Economic Integration by Carlos Primo Braga Bibliography Indexes

Introduction to Growth, Reform, and Adjustment: Latin America's Trade and Macroeconomic Policies in the 1970s and 1980s

After 2 decades of sustained growth averaging 6% per annum, in the early 1980s Latin America entered a period of severe adjustment. The need for this adjustment resulted, to a large extent, from a series of major shocks-both exogenous and policy induced?that greatly disturbed the region's economy. The principal exogenous shocks were the oil price increases of 1973-74 and 1979-80; the drastic deterioration of the terms of trade experienced after 1980; and the dramatic rise of world interest rates in 1980-82, which provoked a steep increase in the debt-service burden. At the policy level, the dramatic increases in government expenditure and fiscal deficits and the liberalization reforms attempted by some of these countries, as well as a general substantial increase in external indebtedness, constituted the most important events. Some countries went from being highly praised economic miracles to international pariahs. Others, which in the midto late 1970s were flooded with abundant foreign exchange-obtained mainly through the exportation of petroleum-are now experiencing difficulties servicing their foreign debt. The region is at this moment struggling to overcome the worst recession since the 1930s. As it slowly emerges from the crisis, it finds a substantial portion of its export earnings mortgaged for the near future to service the accumulated external debt and a general scarcity of additional external funds.

Growth and Structural Change in Latin America since 1960: A Comparative Analysis

Previous articleNext article No AccessGrowth and Structural Change in Latin America since 1960: A Comparative AnalysisMoshé SyrquinMoshé Syrquin Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Economic Development and Cultural Change Volume 34, Number 3Apr., 1986Growth Reform, and Adjustment: Latin America's Trade and Macroeconomic Policies in the 1970s and 1980s Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/451544 Views: 8Total views on this site Citations: 8Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1986 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Martins Iyoboyi, Olarinde Muftau O., Abdulsalam S. Ademola The Institutional and Policy Environment and the Quest for Industrialization in Nigeria, Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies 8, no.2(J)2(J) (May 2016): 13–25.https://doi.org/10.22610/jebs.v8i2(J).1251El-hadj M. Bah Structural Transformation Paths Across Countries, Emerging Markets Finance and Trade 47, no.00 (Jun 2011): 5–19.https://doi.org/10.2753/REE1540-496X4703S201Mauro Rodrigues Import substitution and economic growth, Journal of Monetary Economics 57, no.22 (Mar 2010): 175–188.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmoneco.2009.12.004Hubert Escaith Can Latin America Fly? Revising its Engines of Growth, SSRN Electronic Journal (Jan 2006).https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.963576Enzo Grilli Political economy and economic development in Latin America in the second half of the 20th century, Journal of Policy Modeling 27, no.11 (Feb 2005): 1–31.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpolmod.2004.11.001Simón Teitel Industrialisation, Primary Commodities and Exports of Manufactures, (Jan 1989): 315–341.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-10277-8_13Victor Levy Aid and growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: The recent experience, European Economic Review 32, no.99 (Nov 1988): 1777–1795.https://doi.org/10.1016/0014-2921(88)90085-2Heinz Gert Preusse The indirect approach to trade liberalization: dynamic consideration on liberalization-cum-stabilization policies in Latin America, World Development 16, no.88 (Aug 1988): 883–897.https://doi.org/10.1016/0305-750X(88)90020-4