This paper analyzes the determinants of arabica green coffee prices in Latin American countries using a time series analysis and panel data methods. For this purpose, we construct a panel of different coffee prices: Coffee Organization (ICO) composite prices for Brazilian Naturals, Colombian Milds, and Other Milds; prices paid by the Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia (FNC) to coffee growers; and farm gate prices by country. The results show that the Brazilian Real to USD real exchange rate, inflation, and rain in January affect prices positively. In contrast, green coffee inventorie…
Seeking to deepen the understanding about the relationship between non-tariff measures (NTMs) and international trade, this work estimates bilateral volume effects of imposing NTMs on international trade, focusing on two of the most observed measures: technical barriers to trade (TBT) and sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures. Estimates were carried out for more than 5,000 products at the 6-digit level of the Harmonized System using a panel for 2001-2015 with NTM data notified by more than 150 member countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO).…
The Caribbean economy has experienced increased growth in the last year, moving from 1.4% in 2013 to 1.8% in 2014, with even more positive prospects for 2015, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), at the launch of the flagship report: “Preliminary Overview of the Economies of Latin America and the Caribbean 2014”.
This was presented by ECLAC Executive Secretary Alicia Bárcena at the Commission’s headquarters in Santiago, Chile on 2 December 2014, and was broadcast online and via videoconference.
Following this launch, the ECLAC subregional headq…
The commodity boom between 2002 and 2008 played an importantrole in increasing export earnings from Latin America. Growing demandfrom China for primary products was one factor stimulating the boom.While the direct effects of the growth of exports from Latin Americato China have been extensively explored, the indirect impact of higherChinese demand for commodities on global commodity prices hasreceived less attention. This paper estimates the contribution made bythe growth of Chinese demand to the rise in the prices of the 15 maincommodities exported from the region. On the basis of these estim…
The global economic crisis has put an end to a period of worldwide expansion and halted the integration of Latin America and developing Asia with the international economy. Current and expected economic weakness in the advanced economies has led us to look elsewhere for sources of growth. Emerging economies in Asia and Latin America have increased their contributions to world production, finance, and trade in the past decades. In doing so, the two regions have deepened their economic ties with significant implications for the recovery of their respective economies. In this paper we discuss the…
The liberalization of Maritime Transport is one important element to increase the export competitiveness of a country. In fact, studies remark that, for some countries, the effective rate of protection by the costs of transport is much higher than that of tariffs. One of the most relevant elements in the determination of the costs of maritime transport refers to the efficient management of ports. The global trend towards trade liberalization and integration and economic interdependence led Latin American countries to opt for programs of economic reforms that incorporated the participation of d…
Introduction The Netherlands Antilles is an autonomous entity within the Kingdom of the Netherlands and comprises a federation of five Caribbean islands: Bonaire and Curacao (the Leeward islands) which comprise 80 per cent of the population of 211,000 and Saba, St. Eustatius and the southern part of St. Maarten (the Windward islands). Like the other countries in the Kingdom, it enjoys full autonomy in internal matters as, for example, education, public health, justice and customs. It has a per capita income of about US$ 12,000. The Leeward Islands and the Windward Islands account for a…
Summary Trade between Africa and South America is of relatively minor importance for each region. The main purpose of this report is to determine if a scarcity of maritime transport services could explain this comparative unimportance. More than half of all trade between the two regions is accounted for by just ten specific bilateral flows in petroleum, grain, iron ore, coal, and sugar. Almost all inter-regional trade moves by sea, mostly by non-liner charter shipping services. Trade between Africa and South America is subject to relatively low freight rates, mainly due to the type of produ…
Preface
This book is the result of a project developed by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC);, with support from the Ford Foundation. The text encompasses five articles analyzing emerging economies that were generally rated as successful by international financial institutions and the financial press during episodes characterized by a broad supply of external funds. We include the cases of Chile, Korea, and Mexico in the critical years of the 1990s and Chile in the deep crisis of the 1970s. All these economies were praised for their efficient pub…
Abstract This paper analyses the competitiveness and technological structure of manufactured exports by leading Latin American and Asian economies for 1980-97. It explains East Asian performance with reference to the strategies adopted for technological development, focusing on foreign direct investment strategies. It particularly draws on the experience of Singapore, the countgry that has used FDI to promote industrial growth and technological upgrading more effectively than any other developing country. The paper starts by analysing the nature of technological activity in developing countrie…
7 - 08 Oct
2024, 08:00 - 10:00
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Evento (Meetings and technical symposiums)
An Introduction to CGE Modeling is designed to introduce fundamental concepts and practices of tax and trade policy assessment. The primary tool used is Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) modelling.
The workshop will be a brief introduction to the practice of economic impact analysis, and a presentation of how CGE models are used to provide evidence-based analysis for Caribbean countries. The presentations will explain standard economic theory behind general equilibrium and will provide examples of CGE applications for tax policy and international trade analysis.…
“There is no question that the Caribbean is shouldering an unsustainable debt burden which compromises the capacity of the economies for sustained growth and restricts the options available to governments to introduce important social and welfare programmes” the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Alicia Bárcena, said via video conference in opening the 17th meeting of the Monitoring Committee of the Caribbean Development and Cooperation Committee (CDCC) on 26 June, during which Ministers and high-level Government representatives from the…
The Caribbean receives higher amounts of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) when compared to other developing economies, according to a newly published report from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
Entitled “Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean”, the flagship report was launched by ECLAC Executive Secretary, Alicia Bárcena, on 27 May at the organization’s headquarters in Santiago, Chile.
This year, the annual report places increased emphasis on the importance of foreign direct investment (FDI) for the Caribbean. FDI inflows into the Carib…
Antigua and Barbuda and Saint Kitts and Nevis are set to benefit from technical assistance provided by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) subregional headquarters for the Caribbean in 2015.
ECLAC will assist the government of Antigua and Barbuda in the development of a national trade policy, in addition to providing technical support through two undertakings. The first will be a functional review of the Ministry of Trade, Commerce and Industry. The second will be a review of the country’s National Consumer Protection Mechanisms. The latter activity will …
Chilean exports have boomed since 1975, growing at an averageannual rate of 6% per year in real terms. In this paper, we use Chileanmanufacturing data at the plant level for the years from 1990 to 2007to investigate the relationship between exports, plant dynamics andproductivity. Our findings are consistent with the predictions of the newtheories of heterogeneous firms and trade. First, 64.4% of the totalincrease in exports is accounted for by new exporters net of failedexporters. This effect is a combination of a larger proportion of plantsexporting, a rising proportion of output sold abroad…
The paper analyses the main features of trade agreements covering services concluded between Latin American countries and developed country partners. The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) is devoted a full section with a view to setting out key analytical parameters for the ensuing approach to individual agreements with the United States, the European Union and Japan. By means of a very detailed comparison across agreements, a typology is established for classifying specific elements with relation to whether they simply mirror GATS provisions (GATS-neutral ), go beyond GATS pr…
The recovery of the economies of MERCOSUR, and the disturbances that the recent crises generated in the region have motivated reconsideration of the medium term prospects of the integration project. This paper tries to contribute to this activity with a brief analysis of regional macroeconomic interactions, and a discussion in broad terms of incentives and restrictions for macroeconomic cooperation in the specific conditions of the region. The themes that play through the discussion are that (i) the lack of a shared concrete perspective about the role of MERCOSUR for the growth of the nationa…
Introduction The study of trade and integration (LC/CAR/G.681) between the Netherlands Antilles and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) was undertaken to assess the nature and extent of trade between the two groups of countries as well as the institutional framework for facilitating such trade. In addition, the study considered integration options for increasing trade, in particular Netherlands Antilles exports to CARICOM. Assessment of the export structures of the two groups revealed similarity in goods and services produced but a more diversified export structure in the case of CARICOM. Th…
This publication is a result of a Regional Consultative Meeting on Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean held at the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Santiago, Chile, 19-21 January 2000. The partners in the organization of this meeting were ECLAC, the United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), the Organization of American States (OAS), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB). Fifty-four participants, representing governments from the region at the senior policy-m…
There is growing consensus that although a solid, balanced macroeconomic base is a necessary condition for development, it is not of itself enough to ensure that development is actually achieved or that its fruits will be enjoyed by the population as a whole. In a series of documents, ECLAC has been defining a coherent agenda of public policy reforms designed to ensure a change in production patterns accompanied by greater social equity. This article seeks to present a summary of this proposal, leaving aside for this reason the underlying diagnosis of the regional situation and the general fra…