The Pacific Alliance, Another Effort in LATAM Regional Integration
The Pacific Alliance, Another Effort in LATAM Regional Integration
At AS/COA’s panel on the Pacific Alliance, Colombia’s Ambassador to the U.S. Carlos Urrutia expressed that "we understand the [bloc] as much more than a trade agreement."
Despite the difficulties and failures that free trade agreements (FTA) have posed in Latin America, the political chiefs of four emerging economies in the region have taken a leap of faith once again to open their borders and find common ground for exchange of goods and services while hoping to present an enticing opportunity to foreign investment.
The presidents of Chile, Sebastian Pinera; Peru, Ollanta Humala; Mexico, Enrique Pena Nieto and Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos met in Cali, Colombia, this past week to establish new bases for the Pacific Alliance, the free trade agreement created in 2011….
Eric Farnsworth, vice president of Council of the Americas and the Americas Society (AS/COA), moderated a panel discussion related to the agreement hosted at the AS/COA delegation in New York City. Panelists included Colombian Ambassador Carlos Urrutia; Barbara Kotschwar, research fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and co-author of “The Next Big Thing? The Trans Pacific Partnership and Latin America”; Chris Ryan, CEO, Lakeland Industries and Sidney N. Weiss, attorney, customs and international trade issues.
The panel examined Latin America’s new trade bloc that represents 215 million people and 39 percent of Latin America’s GDP, placing the Pacific Alliance as the ninth largest economy in the world.
The Pacific Alliance’s goal is to open new doors to trade with Asian countries while easing tariffs, integrating stock markets and increasing trade opportunities among themselves based on common guidelines to avoid currency fluctuations….
