Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean

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Economic Commission for Latin America and the
Caribbean
EU-LAC trade in perspective by Rudolf
Buitelaar May 24th, 2005
European Union and UWI Institute of International
Relations Conference on EU-LAC Perspectives and
Potentials
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(No Transcript)
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EU-LAC Trade in global perspective
Total EU-LAC trade in goods stood at around 40
billion US in the mid-1980s currently it totals
100 billion US LAC had a bilateral trade
surplus until 1993 currently it runs a
deficit. EU-LAC trade is not as dynamic as
global trade it was 2.3 of global trade in 1985
and it currently stands at 1.8 This is due to
sluggish LAC exports to EU (0.6 percent points
loss), not entirely compensated by very dynamic
EU exports to LAC (0.2 percent points gain)
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LAC subregions performance on EU market
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MERCOSUR competitiveness matrix
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Andean Community competitiveness matrix
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Central American C.M. competitiveness matrix
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CARICOM competitiveness matrix
Vessels refer to ships, boats and other
vessels 196 million US from Bahamas and 75
million US from St. Vincent
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Mexico competitiveness matrix
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Chile competitiveness matrix
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Conclusions

• LAC exports to EU grow at a below average rate
  because the region specializes in stagnant
  commodity markets and often looses market share
  at that.
• Cases of success stories are wine and salmon from
  Chile cars and telecom equipment from Mexico
  electronic parts from Central America shrimps
  from the Andean Community vessels and rum from
  the Caribbean
• Success cases have little to do with trade
  negotiations
• Caricom trade negotiations focus on sunset
  industries. Here the aim should be to achieve
  competitiveness with compensation of social costs
  in a framework of orderly dismantlement of
  managed trade regimes