Regional integration and macroeconomic coordination in Latin America

Includes bibliography

Regional integration in Latin America, globalization and South-South trade

Includes bibliography

Reducing Legal Uncertainty: A Challenge for Subregional Integration in Latin America and the Caribbean

Despite the recovery in intraregional trade over the past three years, intra-group trade, that is trade within the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR), the Andean Community (CAN) and the Central American Common Market (CACM), remains much weaker than that observed within similar groups in other regions of the world. This weakness is due essentially to the serious lack of complementarity in the process of eliminating tariff barriers (see chapter 3 of Latin America and the Caribbean in the World Economy 2004: Trends 2005, and the study on regional integration entitled: "América Latina y El Caribe: La integración regional en la hora de las definiciones", which is due to be published shortly and which updates basic information for the year 2005). The reasons include (a) weak institutional capacities; (b) the lack of macroeconomic coordination; (c) inadequate infrastructure and d) the lack of depth in integration-related trade disciplines.  This edition of the Bulletin reviews the mechanisms for dispute settlement within Mercosur, the Andean Community and CACM with a view to drawing conclusions on the extent to which they are used. In order to reform such mechanisms, consideration should be given to the creation of a single dispute settlement mechanism which would replicate the procedures and regulations of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Issuing of certificates of origin in some economic integration agreements signed by Latin American countries

In the context of an economic integration agreement (EIA), the issuing and verification of certificates of origin are carried out in accordance with procedures which ensure compliance with the rules of origin. Each EIA has its own system of rules of origin with their corresponding procedures. The purpose of the rules is to define clearly the geographical provenance of a good which may benefit from preferential tariffs in the importing country. The main purpose of the rules of origin is to avoid the diversion of trade, so that preferential tariff treatment is applied only to those products negotiated between the parties. The rules of origin of an EIA are more important than the actual process of tariff reduction, as that process is concluded at some point in time, whereas the rules of origin remain applicable indefinitely.

Regional integration: towards an inclusive value chain strategy

Includes bibliography.

A new frontier for Caribbean convergence: integration without borders

Today, forty years since its birth, the Caribbean integration has reached its limit.1 2 Consequently, there is urgent need to respond to the current realities and emerging global trends — which require greater engagement from the public, students, academics and policymakers — in moving the Caribbean Community towards a new trajectory of Caribbean convergence. The immediate concern is to devise ways of improving the convergence process among Latin American and Caribbean countries. This convergence process will have to be sensitive to both current and emerging global dynamics. This paper presents the roadmap of a new trajectory towards Caribbean convergence, sensitive to both current and emergent regional and global trends. It begins in Section I by identifying the emerging international political and economic trends that provide a backdrop against which the discussion on Caribbean convergence is squarely placed. Section II discusses the need for a new strategy of convergence, and provides the conceptual framework of Caribbean convergence. Section III spells out the pillars, strategies and delivery mechanisms of Caribbean convergence, and highlights the role of Trinidad and Tobago in this process. The paper concludes by pointing out the urgent need for a regional synergy of economic logic and political logic.