Global and Regional Integration: Perspectives from Latin America
Global and Regional Integration has undergone important structural changes in recent years, including, lack of progress of the multilateral trading system, proliferation of preferential trade agreements, challenges confronting traditional regional blocks, and emergence of new mega-regional agreements around the world. Latin America and the Caribbean has been an important actor in this new changing trading environment, since the region needs to bridge two intertwined gaps: (a) seizing a fair share of global trade; and (b) deepening intra-regional economic integration and cooperation. It needs to do so by focusing on completing an unfinished trade agenda that requires an expansion, perfection and convergence of existing trade agreements and, most importantly, reducing logistics costs related to underinvestment in transport infrastructure, uneven regional regulatory frameworks, and underperformance in trade facilitation practices, among others.