Latin American development strategies have historically been inextricably linked with trade theory and policy. The author's main argument is that the old infant industry and the new strategic trade arguments are fundamentally similar. Among their similarities is the justification of selective protection of certain economic sectors. Among their differences, the infant industry argument justifies temporary protection, while the argument in favour of strategic protection of certain industries justifies their protection on an indefinite basis. Yet, in the context of turning inward-oriented in…
Regional integration has once again become an important issue for Latin America and the Caribbean. Compared with previous experiences, however, recent integration commitments have a number of new aspects in such areas as negotiating procedures, the issues involved in the various agreements -some of which are as unprecedented as the adoption of common currencies, the creation of binational companies, common labour laws, etc.- and the actual timing of these steps. Among the various integration initiatives now being pursued, four are particularly important by virtue of the relative weight of the …
The renewed interest sparked by the potential for intraregional cooperation in Latin America and the Caribbean today has been reflected in numerous agreements regarding trade preferences and in attempts to establish free trade areas, customs unions or common markets. The possibility has even been discussed of setting up free trade arrangements on a hemispheric scale. This plethora of proposals inevitably raises a great many questions. What is the reason for this renewed interest? Are the differences between the schemes of today and those of the 1960s and 1970s significant enough to avert the o…