Chile 2013 Blog: TPP and Pacific Alliance - Latin America Pursues Pacific Pacts

Latin America’s sights are set on expanding trade with the Asian market through new trade blocs and agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Pacific Alliance. But what is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) or the Pacific Alliance anyway? Which Pacific Rim countries are members of each? What are the prospects and hurdles they face? And what are the goals of the blocs?

Two AS/COA Online explainers give the background on the Pacific Alliance and the TPP.

As the Pacific Alliance explainer describes it:

One of the newest economic blocs to emerge from Latin America, the Pacific Alliance seeks to create a Latin American gateway to Asian markets. Composed of Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, the bloc is pursuing commercial, economic, and political integration among member countries. The group accounts for more than one-third of Latin America’s GDP and exports about 60 percent more than the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) bloc. 

Not only that, but over a dozen countries are Pacific Alliance observers, and Costa Rica is on its way to becoming a full member. Many of those countries also participate in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which recently concluded its latest round of negotiations in Malaysia.

And what is the Trans-Pacific Partnership? According to the explainer:

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a multilateral free-trade agreement currently under negotiation and designed to promote comprehensive economic integration among Pacific Rim countries…The goal is to sign a “twenty-first century agreement” that covers critical trade-related issues.

Learn more about these blocs through AS/COA explainers: Pacific Alliance and the TPP.