The ADELA Program of the KAS and the Division of International Trade and Integration of ECLAC will organize a conference and publish a book (in English and Spanish) that addresses the current and future challenges of the region in international trade to encourage debate and promote common responses

In the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, global and regional trade are at a crossroads. Latin America and Caribbean trade dynamics were already affected by tensions before the pandemic, but these have worsened since 2020. Examples include: the erosion of the multilateral trading system represented by the World Trade Organization (WTO), the impact of the changing center of gravitation center of regional trade towards China and the rest of Asia on the region’s production and export structure, the trade and productive disintegration of the region, the high export concentration in few products and few companies and low participation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the excessive concentration of regional services exports in tourism and lag in the transition towards the digital goods and services exports.

The book will seek to answer key questions to clarify what is at stake for the future of the region's insertion in international trade and to feed public debate. Along these lines, the chapters will address the ongoing global transformations and how the region could better respond to them.