This presentation discusses the experience of natural gas infrastructure integration in the Southern Cone of Latin America. Topics include public goods and contracting, natural gas crisis in the region, competing views of broken exchanges, contractual conflicts, and issues and lessons for...

Total Western Hemisphere exports to the world increased by 5 percent in 2003, according to preliminary estimates by the IDB's Integration, Trade and Hemispheric Issues Division. This marks a reversal of a two-year trend that saw exports from the hemisphere decline by more than 9 percent between...

The purpose of this study is, first, to look into the relationship between the Dispute Settlement Mechanism (DS) procedures of selected Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) in the Americas and the implementation efforts of the countries involved, and, second, to assess the DS mechanism as a tool to...

This document is divided into two components. First, it provides a comparison of the obligations contained under these four agreements and presents the evolution in the language and commitments in them for the 15 year period between 1993 and 2008 during which they were negotiated. Second, it...

As the region has entered a phase of recovery leaving behind the episodes of extreme turbulence, and the decision horizons have been somewhat extended, it seems appropriate to reconsider the medium term prospects of Mercosur, including the possibility of moving towards a process of deepening...

This paper discusses the role of integration and internationalization in Latin America in the area of Financial Services Negotiations (FSNs). Both integration and internationalization have become increasingly important at a multilateral level, such as within the World Trade Organization (WTO),...

Trade agreements imply preferential trade treatment among the parties. As such, they must in principle meet the conditions of Articles XXIV of GATT and V of GATS. This means that an agreement must provide for reciprocal trade benefits for substantially all trade in goods between the parties, and...

This paper is a review of the fiscal system of Belize. The emphasis of the study is on the revenue system in terms of its design, administration and its effectiveness in revenue mobilization. Belize is facing a critical public sector deficit situation, but its revenue system, although somewhat...

Remittance traffic in the Western Hemisphere has crossed a threshold not only in magnitude, but also in significance highlighting profound emotional bonds between relatives separated by geography and the importance of remittances for development in migrants' countries of origin.

This paper is an attempt to clarify some of the key issues on trade and environment in the forestry sector. The two main emerging issues in the international trade of forest products within Latin America and the Caribbean to be studied are: 1) implications of the removal of trade barriers for...