Has trade liberalization created pollution havens in Latin America?

This paper asks whether the recent trade liberalization in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico has led to increased transfer of polluting activities to Latin America. Using a factor content of trade approach, it shows that prior to liberalization, all three countries specialized in relatively pollution-intensive manufactures. Following liberalization, Argentina and Brazil have increased their specialization in such industries, while Mexico has moved in the opposite direction. It is suggested that these differences are a result of the structure of protection in the pre-liberalization period and the in…

Resolving international trade and investment disputes

This paper analyses the importance to the Latin American countries of the main dispute resolution facilities and conventions applicable to international trade and investment, of which they are the inseparable complement. The spectacular growth in the disputes which these facilities deal with reflects the impact that international trade and investment are now having on economic development. Despite international progress, however, most of the countries have yet to update their domestic legislation, so that this remains a pending task. Accession to the conventions referred to entails numerous re…

Social vulnerability, insurance and risk diversification in Latin America and the Caribbean

Insurance policies are required, along with other measures, to deal with the magnitude and depth of social and economic risk in Latin America. The peculiarities of insurance markets (such as the constraints of the pricing system, the intrinsic characteristics of insurance as an economic good and its dimensions as a public good, its externalities, and risk selection with its adverse effects on equity and efficiency); justify the consolidation of stable, appropriate risk diversification and financing that is oriented by the principle of solidarity, with funding either from compulsory contributio…

Employment and structural mobility. Revisiting a Prebischian theme

Division, The 1980s and 1990s were decades in which spurious labour absorption, meaning rapid growth in low-productivity jobs, took place on a large scale in most of the Latin American countries. This was a major setback to expectations about reforms that had sought to internationalize the countries' economies and position them as competitive, high-productivity producers. This paper describes the evolution of productive labour absorption since the post-war years. It reaffirms the value of this category of analysis, regarded in ECLAC thinking as the main link between technical progress in …

Rules of origin and trade facilitation

The contents of this article complement those of the recently published FAL Bulletin No. 201, which referred to the rules of origin included in economic integration agreements signed by members of the Latin American Integration Association (LAIA). On this occasion the relationship between rules of origin and facilitation of international trade in goods is examined. The contents of both this issue and of FAL Bulletin No. 201 have been taken from a more extensive document written by the same author, which is publication No. 28 of the ECLAC Comercio Internacional Series, Normas de origen y proced…

Normas de origen y facilitación del comercio

Este artículo complementa los contenidos del recientemente publicado Boletín FAL No. 201, que se refirió a las normas de origen en Acuerdos de Integración Económica (AIEs) suscritos por países Miembros de la Asociación Latinoamericana de Integración (ALADI). En esta oportunidad se examina la relación existente entre las normas de origen y la facilitación del comercio internacional de los bienes. Tanto los contenidos de esta edición como los del Boletín FAL No. 201 han sido extractados de un documento más amplio realizado por el mismo autor, cuya publicación corresponde al No. 28 de la Serie Co…

CEPAL Review no.80

Revista de la CEPAL no.80

Deuda pública cierta y contingente: el caso de Colombia

Desafíos de la lucha contra la pobreza rural en la economía globalizada de América Latina: instituciones, mercados y proyectos

Capital flows to Latin America: first quarter 2002

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%…

Istmo Centroamericano: los retos de la sustentabilidad en granos básicos

El presente trabajo se enfoca a determinar la incidencia que han tenido en el sector agrícola los cambios en el estilo de desarrollo experimentados por los países del Istmo Centroamericano en los últimos años, los cuales han introducido reformas en el manejo de sus economías a raíz de la apertura, la desregulación y la liberalización de los mercados. Con relación a la sustentabilidad de la agricultura en la región, la producción de granos básicos desempeña un papel preponderante en la actividad económica de elevados porcentajes de la población rural, así como en la generación de empleo …

Cuba: evolución económica durante 2002 y perspectivas para 2003

Istmo Centroamericano: competitividad e integración regional, 2001-2003

Istmo Centroamericano: estadísticas de hidrocarburos, 2002

Compras governamentais: políticas e procedimentos na Organização Mundial de Comércio, União Européia, NAFTA, Estados Unidos e Brasil

O aprofundamento das negociações entre os 34 países que comporão a ALCA mostrou a importância da realização de avaliações sobre normas e procedimentos em compras governamentais adotados em alguns blocos de comércio referenciais, como é o caso da União Européia, do Acordo de Compras Governamentais da OMC e do capítulo sobre compras governamentais do NAFTA. Revela-se, ainda, de primordial interesse avaliar a política de aquisições governamentais adotada na legislação dos Estados Unidos, o maior parceiro da ALCA, pela abrangência que esta assume ao determinar a preferência, nas aquisiçõe…

Investimentos externos em serviços e efeitos potenciais da negociação da ALCA

O texto aborda implicações de hipotéticos resultados da negociação da Área de Livre Comércio das Américas (ALCA) sobre o Investimento Externo Direto (IED) em um conjunto selecionado de segmentos de serviços —a saber, seguro-saúde, seguro de crédito à exportação, transportes terrestres, serviços de engenharia e serviços profissionais. Partindo-se do pressuposto de homogeneização regulatória, cujo centro de gravidade estaria nas economias desenvolvidas da ALCA, examina-se em que medida o atual panorama para produtores locais, naqueles segmentos, viria a mudar diante das possibilidades…

Política fiscal y protección social: sus vínculos en la experiencia chilena

Resumen En Chile, la política fiscal ha cumplido distintos roles en estos últimos años, entre los más destacados pueden mencionarse los siguientes: (i) ha ayudado a la estabilidad macroeconómica y con ello ha potenciado el crecimiento económico; (ii) ha generado un financiamiento estable y equilibrado para el sistema de protección social, y (iii) ha influido en la institucionalidad de las políticas sociales y del sistema básico de protección social. Este trabajo explora y profundiza en estos roles, investigando en sus relaciones y analizando cuán vinculados están unos con otros en la experie…

Políticas macroeconómicas y vulnerabilidad social: la Argentina en los años noventa

Resumen Este trabajo presenta un análisis de las políticas macroeconómicas aplicadas en la Argentina a lo largo de los años noventa y de sus efectos sobre la vulnerabilidad social. Se describe inicialmente el esquema macroeconómico que estuvo vigente en todo ese período y se caracteriza su forma de funcionamiento. Luego se estudia la evolución del mercado de trabajo en una perspectiva agregada, atendiendo al hecho de que las condiciones de empleo y la evolución del desempleo son variables cruciales por su gravitación sobre la vulnerabilidad social. Posteriormente se examina la evolución de…

What can we say about trade and growth when trade becomes a complex system?

Outsourcing in different modalities is a dominant element of domestic economies and of the world economy. Although the literature is new international production is not a new phenomenon. Yet, the scale of international operations was extended and the pace was accelerated with the movement of trade liberalisation, privatisation and market deregulation of the past decades, together with great progress in technologies of transportation, information and communication that drastically reduced the costs of coordinating international transactions. Internationally dispersed activities have been integr…