The paper employs synthetic control method (SCM) to determine the impact of trade agreements for 64 Latin American country pairs in the period 1989-1996. The results suggest that trade agreements have markedly boosted exports in Latin America, on an average by 76.4 percentage points over ten years. However, there is variation across countries and agreements. The export gains due to trade agreements are lower than the world average comprising 104 country pairs in the period 1983-1995.

The vision of a hemispheric system of free trade charts a bold new course for U.S--Latin American relations that promises to transform the economic and political landscape of the hemisphere well into the next century. In "The Premise and the Promise, "analysts from the United States, Latin America, and Canada explore the dynamics of the process under way in the Americas today, what features free trade ought to have, how the process of regional integration should proceed, and how the regional architecture should be related to the international trading system. Mexico's decision to seek a free trade agreement with the United States and Washington's announcement of the Enterprise for the Americas Initiative turned the incipient integrationist revival of the mid-1980s in Latin America into a seemingly unstoppable force. If regionalism is to be a benign force, however, it must overcome the impulse toward closed, exclusionary arrangements and emulate the best features of the multilateral approach: a regional arrangement should be flexible enough to accommodate vast regional diversity, inclusive enough to allow all countries in the region to participate, and efficient enough not to impose unduly large costs on those excluded from the arrangement. The contents include: Sylvia Saborio, "Overview: The Long and Winding Road from Anchorage to Patagonia," Peter Morici, "American Free Trade: A U.S. Perspective," Jos" Salazar and Eduardo Lizano, "Free Trade hi the Americas: A Latin American Perspective," Richard Lipsey, "Getting There: A Canadian View on WHFTA's Structure," and Refik Erzan and Alexander Yeats, "Empirical Evidence on the Impact of Free Trade Agreements with the United States on Latin America." In six separate chapters, analysts weigh the costs and benefits of subregional free trade agreements between the United States and Mexico, Chile, Central America, Caricom, the Andean Pact, and Mercosur.

This volume analyzes trade agreements in Latin America since the mid-1980s, and provides a theoretical framework that highlights the political-economic tradeoffs entailed in different trade strategies formulated and pursued by different countries in the region. It contains detailed, empirically grounded studies of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and the Mercosur block as a whole.

The vision of a hemispheric system of free trade charts a bold new course for U.S--Latin American relations that promises to transform the economic and political landscape of the hemisphere well into the next century. In The Premise and the Promise, analysts from the United States, Latin America, and Canada explore the dynamics of the process under way in the Americas today, what features free trade ought to have, how the process of regional integration should proceed, and how the regional architecture should be related to the international trading system. Mexico's decision to seek a free trade agreement with the United States and Washington's announcement of the Enterprise for the Americas Initiative turned the incipient integrationist revival of the mid-1980s in Latin America into a seemingly unstoppable force. If regionalism is to be a benign force, however, it must overcome the impulse toward closed, exclusionary arrangements and emulate the best features of the multilateral approach: a regional arrangement should be flexible enough to accommodate vast regional diversity, inclusive enough to allow all countries in the region to participate, and efficient enough not to impose unduly large costs on those excluded from the arrangement. The contents include: Sylvia Saborio, "Overview: The Long and Winding Road from Anchorage to Patagonia," Peter Morici, "American Free Trade: A U.S. Perspective," Jos" Salazar and Eduardo Lizano, "Free Trade hi the Americas: A Latin American Perspective," Richard Lipsey, "Getting There: A Canadian View on WHFTA's Structure," and Refik Erzan and Alexander Yeats, "Empirical Evidence on the Impact of Free Trade Agreements with the United States on Latin America." In six separate chapters, analysts weigh the costs and benefits of subregional free trade agreements between the United States and Mexico, Chile, Central America, Caricom, the Andean Pact, and Mercosur.

Bringing together leading experts in trade law and policy, this volume investigates the coherence between the European Union's trade policy and its non-trade objectives. With a range of illustrative case studies and an interdisciplinary approach, it offers accessible, in-depth analysis of key issues from legal, political, and economic perspectives.

This cluster report takes stock of and explores opportunities for trade integration in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Drawing on a set of 12 analytical studies that will be issued as working papers, the report examines the determinants of trade, explores the potential to enhance LAC’s trade integration, and assesses the associated economic and social effects. To deepen understanding of the region’s policy options and trade strategies, the report also incorporates the views of LAC country authorities based on responses to a survey. This provides an opportunity to examine the alignment of recommendations based on the analytical findings with the region’s current trade policy priorities, with the caveat that the survey was conducted between late 2015 and mid-2016, prior to the most recent developments in the global trade landscape.

Analyzing the experience of Mexico under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), 'Lessons from NAFTA' aims to provide guidance to Latin American and Caribbean countries considering free trade agreements with the United States. The authors conclude that the treaty raised external trade and foreign investment inflows and had a modest effect on Mexico's average income per person. It is likely that the treaty also helped achieve a modest reduction in poverty and an improvement in job quality. This book will be of interest to scholars and policymakers interested in international trade and development.