|
|
|
Map of Central America Map of North America Map of South America |
Email this citationCIAO DATE: 7/00
The Politics of Free Trade in the Western Hemisphere
Manuel Pastor, Jr.
Carol Wise
North South Center
University of Miami
August, 1996
Abstract
What is the future of free trade in the hemisphere? In this paper, we analyze the international and domestic factors that have contributed to commercial liberalization in Latin America, delineate the challenges that are begin-ning to surface, and take a first step toward defining the research and policy agenda ahead. On the latter point, we argue that researchers and policymakers should 1) rethink the recent tendency in Latin America to link macroeconomic stabilization with both trade liberaliza-tion and fixed exchange rates, 2) examine more closely the ways in which firms actually become more competi-tive in response to open trade and how they design effective industrial policy to facilitate these adjustments, 3) reexamine state institutions and political alliances that have enshrouded the trade reform process, and 4) look beyond short-term social compensation packages meant to buffer free trade’s "losers" and seriously tackle institu-tional reforms that could promote equity and long-term economic development.
