Legal Instruments of Integration (IJI) Observatory

This month’s trends

 

In the course of September 2015, the regional trade policy outlook was marked by different initiatives surrounding agreements in force. The most notable events were regional agreements on the part of Mexico, The Dominican Republic, and Peru with partners both within and outside the region and of the main integration blocs—MERCOSUR, CELAC, SICA, UNASUR, and CAN. Progress was also made on new and advanced negotiations.

 

360º Panorama

 

This month, progress was made on intraregional agreements; accords with extraregional partners were deepened; there was headway on negotiations that had already been announced; and progress was made on 20 existing agreements and six trade negotiations (one new, four advanced, and one completed).

 

Concluded Negotiations

 

• Colombia–Panama: Panama to sign a tax treaty with Colombia without the pressure of “fatal dates” (in Spanish)

 

Advanced Negotiations

 

• MERCOSUR and the European Union to meet on October 1 and 2 to seek agreements (in Spanish)

 

• TPP in its final phase; medicaments are still the unknown quantity (in Spanish)

 

• CELAC and UNASUR, mediators in the Colombia–Venezuela crisis (in Spanish)

 

• Colombia and Japan sign investment agreement (in Spanish)

 

 

New Negotiations

 

• South Korea and Central America start FTA negotiations (in Spanish)

 

 

Selected news on trade agreements currently in force

 

• ALADI: ALADI secretary says that there are too many organizations and too little integration (in Spanish)

 

• Association of Caribbean States (ACS): The Addis Ababa Action Agenda and the Caribbean

 

• Bolivia files a complaint with the the Latin American Integration Association (in Spanish) against Chile for its alleged impositions of barriers to Bolivian goods

 

• Chile–Hong Kong SAR: Wines, products of the sea, and Chilean brands attract Chinese investors (in Spanish)

 

• Andean Community announces pilot projects for common borders (in Spanish)

 

• CAN: “Remittances between Andean Community countries grow 27.1% in the first quarter” (in Spanish)

 

• CARICOM: Editorial: A Chance To Revive CARICOM

 

• MERCOSUR: MERCOSUR’s Common Market Group seeks to remove para-tariff barriers (in Spanish)

 

• Costa Rica’s and Panama’s ministers of labor sign an agreement to regulate migration flows (in Spanish)

 

• Cuba and Panama sign an agreement on agriculture (in Spanish)

 

• Four-fold increase in Peru’s trade relations with China (in Spanish)

 

• CARICOM and the Dominican Republic: The case for reconciliation

 

• Dominican Republic–CAFTA: The Dominican Republic’s balance of trade with the United States continues to show a deficit (in Spanish)

 

• Latin American Economic System (SELA): Export consortia as a strategic tool for the international integration of SMEs (in Spanish)

 

• UNASUR: Study published by SELA (in Spanish)

 

• SELA: LAC integration process revitalizes intraregional trade linkages (in Spanish)

 

• NAFTA: The FTA Illusion (in Spanish)

 

• UNASUR: Seven subregional integration mechanisms move towards South American convergence (in Spanish)

 

• Guyana starts gold mining in an area under dispute with Venezuela (in Spanish)

 

The IJI is a compilation of regulatory texts, commentaries, and follow-up on legal commitments and developments of an analytical nature concerning the various integration processes taking place in Latin America and the Caribbean. For news and to learn more about the progress made on trade agreements and negotiations, visit IJI.