The proliferation of free trade agreements around the world has accentuated the role of preferential rules of origin (RoO) in global companies¿ sourcing and investment decisions. However, there are few theoretical and practically no empirical analyses on the effects of RoO on foreign direct...

This report seeks to analyze the efforts among financial institutions to leverage the relationship between financial intermediation and remittance transfers. The impact of family remittances has been highlighted in the literature as an important one for development. A development impact is one...

This paper formed part of a Conference "Mercosur: In Search of a New Agenda" held in the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Rio de Janeiro in June 2003. The purpose of the Conference was to was to examine future directions for Mercosur in light of emerging political dynamics pointing to renewed...

Brazil and the United States are key players in world agricultural and food markets. The agri-food system in both countries is very large in absolute and relative terms. Both are net exporters of agricultural and food products and major recipients of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the food...

The approval of Decisions 599 and 600 on the Harmonization of Substantial and Procedural Aspects of Value Added Taxes and the Harmonization of Excise Type Taxes (VAT and selective taxes) by the Commission of the Andean Community is a notable victory for the Andean integration process and sets a...

Although interregional cooperation in trade and investment between Latin America and Asia-Pacific has been on the agendas of countries in both regions for some time, initiatives have been few, with meager results. The lack of tangible results is related to the economic asymmetries between the...

The process of economic reform and trade liberalization in Latin America and the Caribbean, under way since the end of the 1980s, has brought about an increasing integration of the countries in the region into the world economy, both in terms of commercial and investment flows. At the same time,...

The Central American Common Market (CACM) comprises Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, the signatories of the General Treaty on Economic Integration in 1960. The basic pattern of economic integration in Central America was based on a free trade area, with a common...

The protection of intellectual property has been a subject of great contention between developed and developing countries in recent years. Although the Agreement on TRIPs was signed by the members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) during the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations, its...

Latin American and Caribbean countries are today at an important juncture in their international economic relations. Since the end of the 1980s the countries of the region have been pursuing a process of economic reform and opening that has brought about a radical change in their domestic...