Trade and Trade Reform in Latin America and the Caribbean in the 1990s

For many decades, trade policy in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) had involved very high levels of protection and of government intervention. The active pursuit of import substitution policies reduced the openness and efficiency of the regions economies. It also increased their external vulnerability, as they became dependent on a narrow range of export products, with little ability to absorb external shocks. This state of affairs changed markedly in the 1980s and 1990s, when most countries of the region moved to liberalize their trade regime. Trade policy reform in LAC in the 1990s has been both widespread and extensive, and the region now shows a fairly open trade regime. Such a sharp policy reversal clearly had an impact on trade flows, and those effectively underwent significant changes in the past decade. They also coincided with a number of other important changes in the LAC economies, including major structural reforms (with the privatization of many public enterprises and the deregulation of most domestic markets), a surge in investment (itself partly linked to the lower relative prices for capital goods resulting from higher openness), higher capital flows, and a more careful pursuit of macroeconomic policy aimed at preserving financial stability to foster sustainable growth. This paper seeks to assess the magnitude of the changes in trade flows in the past decade in the context of changes in the underlying policy framework. Section I summarizes the main trends observed in LAC trade over the 1990-97 period. Section II summarizes trade liberalization in the region since the mid-1980s. Section III attempts to assess how trade liberalization has affected the volume and structure of trade flows. Section IV concludes with some policy recommendations in the area of trade, particularly in the context of the present global financial crisis.