Latin America Hails TPP Trade Opening
Latin America Hails TPP Trade Opening
"TPP will also create both a path and incentive for further reforms by its Latin America signatories," comments COA’s Eric Farnsworth.
Three of Latin America’s most dynamic economies — Mexico, Chile and Peru — will be part of an integrated “factory” serving 40 per cent of the world’s GDP under a Trans-Pacific Partnership deal that opens new markets and trade prospects, officials say.
“This has been a fight that has taken us five years,” Magali Silva, Peru’s trade minister, told the Financial Times. She stressed that the deal went far beyond bilateral agreements, of which the three had dozens between them.
“We are going to be part of the 12 economies that together handle 40 per cent of the world’s GDP. The main benefit here is the accumulation of origin,” she said, referring to the concept that something produced in one TPP nation and exported to another will in effect be treated as if it were made in that second country. “It is like having the 12 countries acting like a factory,” Ms Silva said....
...Colombia has not been involved in the TPP, but there seems to be no barriers to it being invited by member countries to join later.
Eric Farnsworth, vice-president of the Council of the Americas, said Colombia would be critical to the development of regional supply chains within the Pacific Alliance — making its inclusion, for many, just a matter of time.
“TPP will also create both a path and incentive for further reforms by its Latin America signatories, an important consideration given the temptation to look inward during periods of economic strain and uncertainty,” Mr. Farnsworth said....
