by Brian J. McCormick, guest columnist Chemcost’s search for “the New Cheap”* winds up this month with a big opportunity story in Latin American trade. Last month we focused on Brazil (see Brazil’s In-Balance Trade Offers One Sweet Saving Opportunity). This month our...
Suffering by Comparison
Spotlight on Pacific Alliance trade bloc casts unflattering light on Mercosur “While Pacific Alliance thrives, Mercosur withers,” headlines a recent Andres Oppenheimer opinion piece in the Miami Herald. The Pacific Alliance’s May 23 Cali summit, capped by an agreement...
Panamanian Prospects
Last of a long-pending trio of US FTAs quietly entered into force October 31 by Bill Armbruster, blog anchor Compared to the Free Trade Agreements with Korea and Colombia that took effect earlier this year, the US-Panama FTA generated little controversy – in part...
In Dispute: Argentina Trade Policies
WTO complaints against (and from) Argentina are rising. Here’s a scorecard. Its trade policies have secured for Argentina the dubious title of the most protectionist country in the world. As reported by the Latin Business Chronicle, and based on Global Trade Alert...
LATAM at a Glance
Miami Herald scores Latin American economies on key indicators Here’s a handy reference: the figures on population, GDP, unemployment, trade, remittances, inflation, foreign direct investment, and foreign debt for each of Latin America’s national economies, courtesy...
A Model Trade Partner
US exports to Chile have soared since FTA took effect in 2004 by Bill Armbruster, blog anchor I caught Barbara Kotschwar, a Latin America specialist with the Washington-based Petersen Institute for International Economics, by surprise when I said I wanted to talk...
What Brazil Is Buying
Cotton and ethanol leap into Brazil’s top 5 imports from the US by Bill Armbruster, blog anchor China has roared past the US to become Brazil’s top trade partner, but the US is still the top exporter to the Latin American giant, and those exports – plus the US surplus...
China’s LATAM Connection
China hitches its growth to emerging market economies The recent HVAC Online story (in which Datamyne stats are cited) on the heat-driven spurt in Colombian imports of Chinese mini split ACs reminds us again just how much and how quickly China has invested itself in...
Happy Cinco de Mayo!
Celebrating imports from Mexico Cinco de Mayo commemorates the 1862 Batalla de Puebla at which Mexican forces soundly defeated the French army, which had been dispatched by Napoleon III to secure an empire in the Western Hemisphere. While the French wouldn’t quit...
Following Glencore
Trade data can shed light on a low-profile company’s x-border commerce Back on April 7, we took a look at what Datamyne trade data can reveal about Colombia’s consumption of US exports. We noticed then, but didn’t comment on, the fact that three of Colombia’s top five...