Proceso de Integración en América Latina
| Autor | Joaquín Flores Paredes/Susana Wong Chan/Duayner Salas Chaverri |
| Cargo | Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Profesor en la Facultad de Estudios Superiores Cuautitlán, Departamento de Ciencias Sociales/Investigadora en la Universidad de Lausana, Suiza. Investigadora en Cross-border Research Association/Profesor, investigador y coordinador académico del Programa Administración Aduanera y Comercio Internacional... |
| Páginas | 64-82 |
Latin American Journal of Trade Policy 1 (2018) – ISSN 079-9668 – Universidad de Chile
64
Integration Processes in Latin America: The Case of Mexico and Central
America
Joaquín Flores Paredes
Susana Wong Chan
Duayner Salas Chaverri
Abstract
After describing, within the framework of “Open Regionalism”, the tortuous process that the Central
American countries have experienced to achieve their integration as a Common Market, this article
analyses the relationship between these countries and Mexico, through the Free Trade Agreement signed
among them. Once it is shown that the integration process of the Central American countries is on an
impasse, the article explores the possibilities to advance on the economic integration between Mexico
and the region. Using quantitative measurement and qualitative elements, this article identifies favorable
conditions for such integration to be initiated by Mexico and Costa Rica, whether or not US trade policy
changes towards the region.
Keywords: Mexico, Central America, Costa Rica, Economic integration, Free trade agreements, Trade
policy.
Resumen
Luego de describir, en el marco del “regionalismo abierto”, el tortuoso proceso que han experimentado
los países centroamericanos para lograr su integración como Mercado Común, este artículo analiza la
relación entre dichos países y México, a través del Tratado de Libre Comercio firmado entre ellos. Una
vez señalado que el proceso de integración de los países centroamericanos se encuentra en un callejón
sin salida, el artículo explora las posibilidades de avanzar en un proceso de integración económica entre
México y esta región. Usando medidas cuantitativas y elementos cualitativos, este artículo identifica
aquellas condiciones favorables para que México y Costa Rica inicien dicha integración,
independientemente de si la política comercial de los EE. UU. cambia hacia la región.
Keywords: Mexico, América Central, Costa Rica, Integración económica, Acuerdos de Libre Comercio,
Política comercial.
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Professor at Facultad de Estudios Superiores Cuautitlán., Departamento de
Ciencias Sociales. E-mail: jflores@unam.mx. Recibido: 8 de abril de 2018. Aceptado: 28 de junio de 2018.
University of Lausanne, Research Fellow. Cross-border Research Association, Researcher. E-mail:
susana.wongchan@unil.ch, susana.wong@cross-border.org
Universidad de Costa Rica, Professor, Researcher and Academic Coordinator at the Customs Administration and Foreign
Trade Program within the Public Administration School. E-mail: duayner.salas@ucr.ac.cr
Joaquín Flores Paredes; Susana Wong Chan; Duaymer Salas Chaverri
Integration Processess in Latin America: The case of Mexico and Central America
65
Introduction
The traditional regionalism in Latin America exists since the 1950’s, with the beginning of the
structuralism and the start of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC),
within the framework of the Import Substitution Industrialization Model (ISI) promoted by them. In this
context, the integration processes in Latin America were encouraged by the creation of the Central
America Common Market (CACM) in 1958 and the Latin American Free Trade Association (LAFTA)
in 1960, choosing the strategy of inward-oriented growth regulated by the State. In that moment, the
United States of America (USA) Government was a strong advocate of the multilateralism which was
aligned with the so-called General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
The difference with the new regionalism emerged in the 1990’s, is that this started on the framework of
the depletion of the efforts to advance through the trade liberalization by mean of the GATT and its
transformation to the World Trade Organization (WTO). Having in front the standstill of the trade
multilateralism, countless Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) were born at the regional and bilateral level. By
then, a set of changes in the world scenario were shaping the so called economic globalization, with a
new world geopolitical architecture with new actors on the economic sphere and new technologies.
Hereafter, the neoliberal approach would take more importance, including the minimal State regulation,
and the development strategy would have the support of the outward-oriented growth.
Recent efforts to maintain alive the option of the multilateralism through the WTO, and new plurilateral
negotiations are coming to life, such as the agreement on services and environmental goods, but again,
the developed countries are mostly leading the negotiations and therefore, leaving out other countries.
Also, there is a rise in the tendency to negotiate “megaregional agreements”. It is the case of the Trans-
Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), where despite
the initial impulse, both agreements have been questioned by the eruption of the new USA Government
on 2016 and reinforced when the President, Donald Trump, signed an executive order to pull out of the
TPP trade deal in January 2017. Another agreement under negotiation is the Regional Comprehensive
Economic Partnership (RCEP), formed by 16 Asian countries. (ECLAC, 2016 p. 81).
In this context, the USA foreign policy had privileged the negotiation of bilateral and regional FTAs until
2016. (Calcagno, 2008; Schiff & Winters, 2003; Rueda-Junquera, 1999; ECLAC, 1994; Cable, 1994). With
the arrival of the new USA Government in 2017, there is a policy change, pointing to protectionism.
Considering the country leadership position, the world economy could be turning to more integration
processes and open regionalism. But by now, its leadership is disputed by new actors which have
strengthened their positions in the world scenario, as in the case with China and India, producing a new
world consolidated geopolitical architecture.
From the neoclassical approach, the effects of integration processes through FTAs on developing
countries to improve their income levels have been studied. In that sense, the results found by Venables
(1999) suggest that when those FTAs are signed between low income countries, there is a tendency to
the divergence of the incomes of the member nations, while the agreements signed with high incomes
countries tend to the convergence. As an example of this, the case of Mexico as member of the North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Eastern-Europe countries becoming parties of the
European Union (EU). This is reinforced considering that those agreements can also promote technology
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