Heine Discusses Latin America and Changing Global Trade
Ambassador Jorge Heine, Research Professor at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, published an op-ed in the New York Times discussing a new Asia trade partnership and how it leaves Latin America on the outskirts.
In the op-ed, titled “América Latina se está quedando al margen del mundo que viene” (Latin America is being left out of the world to come), Heine and co-author Nicolas Albertoni discuss the contrast between fragmented Latin America and the the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) – promoters of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Association (RCEP). As the RCEP comes together and the United States begins rethinking global trade deals, the authors suggest that Latin America is at risk of being left by the wayside.
There is not a global consensus on trade deals that could be formed within the World Trade Organization (WTO), so Heine and Albertoni say that Latin America must either get involved in upcoming multi-national trade deals or create their own as they are the wave of the future.
An excerpt:
The ideal would be to advance these issues of trade liberalization and other items in universal multilateral negotiations. However, we live in an imperfect world, with suboptimal solutions. The central point for Latin America is to understand that the countries that make up these mega-treaties will continue to advance to promote greater diversification of their markets. And the countries of the region are increasingly removed from those talks. It is an unfavorable scenario: from these mega-treaties the rules of the 21st century trade are being written.
The full op-ed can be read on the New York Times‘ website.
Ambassador Jorge Heine is a Research Professor at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. He has served as ambassador of Chile to China (2014-2017), to India (2003-2007) and to South Africa (1994-1999), and as a Cabinet Minister in the Chilean Government. Read more on him here.