USA Trade to Latin America Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

USA Trade to Latin America - Research Paper Example Trade between the United States and Latin America grew to approximately 82 % between 1998 and 2009, more than the 52% with the European Union, 72% with Asia, and 64 % for the rest of the world, according to the Congressional Research Service (Hornbeck, 2011). Last year’s growth elevated trade between the United States, and the region to a historic high of $772 million (Weintraub, Rugman &Boyd, 2004). Exports to the region have grown by 22%, while imports reached increased to 20 percent. Growth in trade between the United States and the Latin America has traditionally been high. This is because of the high population of Hispanics living in the United States and Latin America’s proximity to the U.S. There are approximately over 50 million Hispanics living in the United States. Latin American countries have made prominent advancement in trade liberalization over the past three decades, reducing tariffs significantly and entering into multiple subregional agreements of their own. Countries such as Chile, Peru, Brazil and Colombia helped through their efforts to liberalize trade and become more competitive. Recently, Colombia and the United States signed a free-trade agreement. Early Latin American trade agreements (1960s) were inward looking, defensive in nature, exclusive of industrialized countries, and so minimally successful in leading to lasting regional integration and facilitating development. Agreements struck more recently, under the rubric of the â€Å"New Regionalism,† have gone farther, cultivated by the desire to integrate more fully, and by the growing belief, that trade liberalization can be a cornerstone for promoting structural reform, development, and international competitiveness. Historically, growth in U.S. trade with Latin America has outpaced that of all other regions, and over the last 15 years, the United States has signed reciprocal free trade agreements (FTAs) with 11 Latin American countries and implemented with nine of them. These include the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR), North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and bilateral FTAs with Peru and Chille. FTAs with Col ombia and Panama were signed but not implemented, as they awaited congressional action. Still, a number of large economies in South America are not part of U.S. FTAs. They have resisted a region wide agreement, the Free Trade Areas of the Americas (FTAA) because it represented an extension of the same trade model used by the United States in bilateral agreements. Many countries south of the Caribbean Basin have been hesitant in entering into such a deal because it does not meet their principal negotiation objectives. Brazil, Argentina, and Venezuela do not rely on U.S. regional unilateral preferential arrangements (e.g., the Caribbean Basin Initiative or Andean Trade Preference Act), and would have to redefine their sub regional trade pacts). They are less compelled to capitulate to U.S. demands because they are far less dependent on the U.S. economy (Chauffor & Maur, 2011) On the other hand, Chile, which has long followed a policy differing from that of its neighbours, has signed t he Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership (P4) with Singapore, New Zealand and Brunei. The P4 came into force in May 2006. All party countries are members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. The United States was to join the group as well, but has not yet done so. The US also