Publication by the IDB (Nov. 2019)

Trading Promises for Results

What Global Integration can do for Latin America and the Caribbean

(edited by Mauricio Mesquita Moreira and Ernesto Stein)

  • Excessive expectations on the promises of free trade led to disappointment, skepticism and reform fatigue, and in some cases, to policy reversals.
  • Liberalization brought many benefits, including faster growth. Our study finds that a tariff cut accelerates per capita GDP growth. And most Latin Americans favor deeper integration.
  • Some sectors and workers lose with free trade, however, and have incentives to block trade reform. Implementing good trade policies requires a deep understanding of the political economy of trade policy and an adequate institutional architecture for trade policy management.
  • Succesful trade policies also require a complementary agenda to facilitate factor reallocation and protect those who are made worse off, in order to make the most of the opportunities offered by global integration, while mitigating associated risks.

Read more, download or subscribe: Link

Brainstorming with Diplomacy

November 18, 2019

Linda Walker von Graffenried, Vice President of the LATCAM Board, Philippe Nell, Honorary Ambassador of the LATCAM Board, and Tatjana Gaspar, Managing Director of LATCAM, were invited by Ana Rosa Valdivieso, Ambassador of Peru to Switzerland, to take part in an informal luncheon at the residence of the Peruvian Ambassador and in the presence of Ambassadors and Embassy officials of other Latin American countries. The purpose was to open a dialogue about opportunities of mutual cooperation by strengthening ties with LATCAM, get a perspective on potential LATCAM events under consideration for 2020 and give all diplomats present a possibility to ask questions and present their views.

Focus on Uruguay

November 13, 2019

Philippe Nell, Honorary Ambassador of LATCAM, joined Alejandro Garofali, Ambassador of Uruguay to Switzerland, to meet Marcos Esteve, CEO of Banque Heritage, for lunch at the bank’s headquarters in Geneva. Banque Heritage being the only Swiss bank established in Uruguay, topics of the discussion were opportunities for Swiss banks in Uruguay as well as banking and policies affecting Uruguay’s competitiveness.

Meeting ProChile

October 31, 2019

LATCAM Board Members Gabriela Lippe-Holst and Manfred Ebling held a meeting in Zurich with Francisco Gormaz, Ambassador of Chile to Switzerland, Minister Counsellor Roberto Plaza Cañas and Dr. Marcelo Villagrán, Trade Representative at the General Consulate of Chile in Munich, engaging in a productive discussion about developing and improving business relations between Switzerland and Chile.

Foreign Affairs (Nov/Dec 2019 issue)

Foreign Affairs (Nov/Dec 2019 issue) article “Why Latin America Was Primed to Explode” by Moisés Naím and Brian Winter:

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/central-america-caribbean/2019-10-29/why-latin-america-was-primed-explode

The entire article can be read by subscription only.

Meeting a Brazilian Indigenous Delegation

November 8, 2019:
Ramon Esteve, Chairman of the Board of LATCAM, and Dr. Philippe Nell, Honorary Ambassador of LATCAM, meeting with a Delegation of Brazilian Indigenous Populations and a Delegation of the STSA in Geneva, discussing threats to the Amazon Region and opportunities of the FTA.

Fact Sheet Amazonas

A Statement on the above meeting by Ramon Esteve will be sent to our Members.

S-GE EVENT November 26, 2019: BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES IN THE BRAZILIAN MARKET

S-GE Event: Business Opportunities in the Brazilian Market

An overview on how to navigate the Brazilian Market

The Brasilea Foundation, in cooperation with Switzerland Global Enterprise (S-GE), invites interested companies to the event taking place on November 26th 2019 in Basel to get to know more about the challenges and opportunities of doing business in Latin America’s largest market.

For more information please consult the flyer (download)