The term rules of origin is an economic expression referring to a set of substantive rules for identifying the source of imported goods. As with any set of rules, certain formalities must be followed which entail public and private transaction costs. The public sector has to enforce the rules of origin and implement proper controls with a view to monitoring external trade in goods, minimizing budgetary expenditures and maximizing the collection of tax revenues, while at the same time facilitating international trade. Likewise, private agents involved in external trade in goods are requir…
With the first signals of a global economic recovery, prospects for private capital flows to emerging markets improved in the first quarter of 2002. Despite the concerns over corporate accounting practices in the U.S. and the deepening of the economic and financial crisis in Argentina, emerging equity and bond markets have outperformed those in industrialized countries. Emerging market equities and bonds in the first quarter of the year continued to show the strong performance that started in the fourth quarter of last year. The overall JP Morgan Chase EMBI+ excluding Argentina rose about 20%…
The emerging markets debt class entered 2003 in sound shape. Similar to 2002, emerging markets debt finished the first quarter of 2003 as the top performer over all other fixed income asset classes, as well as equity markets. The downside risks for the global recovery, uncertainty about the length of the war with Iraq, and the deteriorating economic outlook in the US and Europe actually contributed to highlight the benefits of diversification into emerging markets. The flow of funds into emerging debt markets was a major factor pushing spreads down during the quarter. These inflows were drive…
Abstract The paper deals with changes in the regulation and supervision of the Latin American financial sector in the aftermath of the Tequila Crisis of 1994-1995. While it finds that both have improved, regulation and supervision cannot resolve all problems; good macroeconomic policy and performance are essential complements. This is especially true because of the procyclical nature of financial activity. The paper presents both regional data for Latin America, contrasting it with other emerging markets, and four country case studies (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico). The latter show how…
In the 1990s, Canada's trade relations with Latin America and the Caribbean intensified. The signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994 signaled the beginning of a new phase in trade relations between Canada and countries in the hemisphere. Since 1994, Canada has signed trade agreements with Costa Rica and Chile. Currently, negotiations are underway for a free trade agreement with Central America. Also, preliminary talks of trade agreements with the Caribbean and the Andean Community have taken place. In addition, Canada is actively participating in negotiati…
Abstract Based on the analysis of the Argentinean currency board and the full dollarization scheme in Ecuador this paper argues that an intermediate exchange rate regime (compared to free floating or hard peg) will be a better option for countries subject to external financial shocks and a worldwide export and import structure. It shows that the Argentine convertibility system was successful as an anti-inflationary program. However, the reduction in the inflation rate has been accompanied by a dramatic change in relative prices of tradable and non tradable goods and services, which ha…
Abstract New technological options that permit the use of digital systems to create and disseminate information around the world are paving the way for new means of organizing society and economic production and are gradually giving rise to a meta-paradigm that has come to be referred to as the Information Society. Viewed from the perspective of developing countries, the question of how to employ this emerging paradigm to achieve broader development goals and to integrate them more fully into the global Information Society is an issue of the utmost importance on the development agenda…
This study is a measure of the impact of the yachting sector in Saint Lucia specific to the
terms of reference as presented by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the
Caribbean (ECLAC). This study is part of the project: Development of a Subregional Marinebased
Tourism Strategy, co-funded by the Government of the Netherlands, which is aimed at the
development of sustainable yachting in the Eastern Caribbean and focuses on the island arc from
the British Virgin Islands in the north to Trinidad and Tobago in the south. This study was
compiled based on information gathered through inter…
Abstract The internationalisation of the euro is in its initial stages and it is still difficult to draw any definitive conclusions regarding its scope and its implications for Latin America. Indeed, the emergence of an internationally used currency is slow and subject to inertial forces. Nonetheless, several fairly robust conclusions can be inferred from the results of the document. The most plausible medium- to long-term international scenario seems to be development of an asymmetrical duopoly between the euro and the dollar. In a context of scant international monetary cooperation, th…
Abstract
The Caribbean countries have for decades been described as being data poor . The inability of the countries to provide, in a number of areas, data on certain issues of national or world importance has its roots in the poor information infrastructure that characterizes the Caribbean countries.
The national accounts are designed to provide information on almost every aspect of national life that must be of interest to the administration and citizenry alike. This paper looks at the countries' implementation of the United Nations System of National Accounts (SNA); from th…
Introduction (first paragraph);
When Raúl Prebisch died in 1986 his ideas were out of fashion in Ronald Reagan's Washington and Latin American capitals, dismissed by most Western economists as passé -or even dangerously misguided in the new crusade for globalization. Only United Nations circles and a narrowing band of supporters insisted on his permanent contribution. It was as if his life had merely reflected the turbulence of the short, violent century (as Hobsbawn termed it);; now that it was over, with the Cold War consigned to history, so too (it appeared); was Prebisch&#…
Foreword The Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government,which met in Panama in November 2000, devoted a good part of its deliberations to the subject o children and youth.It recognized the importance of their rights,as clearly enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child,which all the Ibero-American countries have signed.It also identified the most urgent problems acing boys,girls and adolescents and,in the Panama Declaration 2000,set forth the strategies for resolving them. As these priorities were established,it became clear that there was a ne…
This article analyses the main determinants of private-sector investment in Brazil during the period 1956-1996, using an empirical model employed in the most recent studies on developing countries. The econometric procedures followed not only take into account the non-stationarity of the data series examined, but allow for the possible difficulties involved in treating the conditioning variables as exogenous ones or as policy instruments. The findings -both the long-term equations and the short-term models- reveal the positive impact of the output, public investment and financial credit variab…
CONTENTS I.Notes on NAFTA’s Environmental Implications II. US-Mexican transboundary water issues: public and private sector entities participate in round tableIII.Colloquium on Regulatory Expropriations in International LawIV. Great Lakes: Donors pledge US $140 million for Nile basin projects, 29 June 2001V. Toronto newspaper concerned about U.S. interest in Canadian water VI. Debate on piping Canadian water to the American SouthwestVII. Mexican water debt coming due VIII.India: Water release into Pakistan rivers IX. UK Water Industry Says: 'Climate Change Threat Urgent' X.…
The view that pervasive economic insecurity threatens political support for the ongoing market-oriented reforms has become one of the most common refrains in current discussions on Latin American affairs. Dealing with economic insecurity would thus appear to be a key part of the unfinished agenda of Latin America's reforms. The author argues that economic insecurity in Latin America is multifaceted and has many sources that feed on each other. Some of the insecurity arises from the decline in employment protection and increased volatility of household outcomes. Some of it is the result of…
The need to devise an appropriate mechanism for the meaningful participation of smaller economies in the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA); has been recognized since the beginning of the process of integration in the Americas and was articulated in the Plan of Action and Declaration of the Summit of the Americas, held in Miami in December 1995 (1); . Since then, the San Jose Declaration (2); reiterated the commitment of the countries of the hemisphere to ensure the full participation of the smaller economies in the FTAA and increase their level of development.
The declaration states that …
The objective of this paper is to explore the effects of globalization on the labour market and social stratification. It is generally held that globalization will bring about progress for nations and people. This, however, is far from clear, since the experience of almost two decades has been raising increasing doubts about the potential net gains and, particularly, the distribution of such gains. Clearly, there are winners and losers among both countries and people. We will concentrate on the effects upon people within countries and refer only to one region: Latin America. Our aim is to iden…
The economic reforms applied in the region during the 1980s and 1990s created expectations, for which there was theoretical justification, of strong job creation and greater equity in the labour market. This article analyses developments in the quantity and characteristics of employment during the 1990s. It concludes that today's labour market problems are due to insufficient economic growth and to less intensive use of labour, resulting mainly from changes in tradable goods-producing activities. Modernization of production methods in companies and sectoral restructuring that increased th…
A great deal of effort has been put into education reform in Latin America since the early 1990s. Extending the coverage of educational opportunities and improving the quality of the education delivered in schools are crucial for the countries of the region, where education in State schools has often been of a low standard. It is not enough just to study macro education policies as they are formulated by governments and implemented by centralized ministries of education. What is promised or envisioned on paper is often quite different from what actually happens in school establishments. It is …
Abstract The region ended the 1990s with mixed results in the area of economic and social planning. The outcomes of planning exercises have varied depending on what is understood by the planning process or system in each country (agents, agencies, subjects, knowledge, political agenda, procedures, resource-allocation, target-image, institutional framework and others). On point that does emerge, however, is the need for the State to have an agency or representative through which it can perform basic, irreplaceable planning duties, whatever the style of development or reform adopted. These inclu…