Far from champions, close to midgets : international production sharing in Central and South America

This paper assesses the relative participation of Argentina, Brazil, Guatemala and Nicaragua in fragmented world production. Based on trade statistics from 2000 to 2004, it analyses whether the trade flows of these economies have evolved towards production sharing schemes, and how great this type of trade is, in order to sustain their presence in the world economy. Guatemala and Nicaragua have reached a moderate insertion in a production sharing scheme, following a North-South trade pattern. Nonetheless, their participation is still small, being threatened not only by international competition, but also by their dependence on a unique market. Brazil has consolidated participation in a few chains, showing a more diversified North–South trade pattern. Argentina has attained insertion in the automotive chain of production, whereas its participation in other ones seems still quite limited. The country has a more South-South trade pattern, which exposes it to a certain degree of dependence.

Global Integration and Growth in Honduras and Nicaragua

Globalization, Latin America and the Caribbean, Sustainable growth

Regional integration among developing countries : opportunities, obstacles and options.

Wirtschaftsunion; Entwicklungsländer;

Trade Logistics and Regional Integration in Latin America and the Caribbean

During the past few decades, the landscape of the world economy has changed. New trade patterns reflect the globalization of the supply chain and intra-industry trade, and increasing flows between neighboring countries and trading blocs with similar factor endowments. Similarly, the approach to production, trade, and transportation has evolved incorporating freight logistics as an important value-added service in global production. This integrated approach have become essential, and as such, both the trade agenda and freight logistics are beginning to converge providing an unparalleled opportunity for countries to deepen their integration with neighboring countries and their national performance in transport related services. Consequently, developing countries are finding themselves hard-pressed to adjust their policy agendas to take into account costs not covered in past rounds of trade negotiations. This paper focuses on the importance of freight logistics in trade facilitation measures, examines the transport and logistics cost in international trade, addresses logistics performance in Latin America and the Caribbean and regional initiatives to advance the integration process and finally, exchanges views on the potential for trade logistics to impact the regional agenda and to deepen integration.latin america caribbean trade; regional integration; infrastructure trade facilitation

A study of the Central American Common Market

In the history of the Central American Republics many attempts at union, either political or economic or both, have been made and all have failed. Presently, these same countries are united economically once again as the Central American Common Market. In this latest attempt at union also doomed to failure? This paper reviews the historical background of the region and the events leading to the present economic integration pact, summarizes the major agreements and treaties, discusses the chronic economic obstacles that must be overcome and examines the results to date of the nascent Central American Common Market.http://www.archive.org/details/studyofcentralam00harnLieutenant, United States NavyLieutenant Commander, United States NavyApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Financial market infrastructures:Essays on liquidity, participant behaviour and information extraction

The economic analysis of financial market infrastructures has gained increasing interest. Financial market infrastructures provide the underlying network of the financial system and are critical for the smooth functioning of financial markets. The thesis includes four separate research projects unified by the notion that data from FMIs can be highly useful to gain a better understanding of system dynamics, but also offer valuable insights on financial market developments in general. The chapters rely heavily on data from TARGET2, the Eurosystem’s large-value payment system. Chapter 2 shows that a higher share of tiered payments from client banks reduces liquidity consumption by settlement banks by giving them more leeway. System designers and overseers should weigh benefits and risks of tiering carefully. Chapter 3 identifies operational outages of participants using an algorithmic approach. The developed algorithm provides a hitherto absent data set on outages that is useful for evaluating compliance with reporting requirements and risk assessment. Chapter 4 investigates changes in the collateral framework and technical aspects of collateral mobilization. A shift towards domestic channels reflects a home bias, especially during the sovereign debt crisis. Due to high inflows, culminating in the Bundesbank’s escalating TARGET2 claims, funding requirements and collateral stocks fell. Chapter 5 investigates why and how data sets on the unsecured interbank money market differ. The systematic approach highlights that different data captures cross-border loans, loans of different banking classes and recurring daily loans unevenly. The analysis is useful for developing reporting frameworks and extracting money market loans from payments data. The last chapter highlights policy implications and trends in payments

Economic Reform and the Process of Global Integration

macroeconomics, economic reform, global integration

Regional Trade Agreements and U.S. Agriculture

Regional trade agreements (RTA's) have become a fixture in the global trade arena. Their advocates contend that RTA's can serve as building blocks for multilateral trade liberalization. Their opponents argue that these trade pacts will divert trade from more efficient nonmember producing countries. U.S. agriculture can benefit from participating in RTA's and may lose when it does not. Agriculture is an important source of potential U.S. gains from RTA's. While the United States, as a global trader with diverse trade partners, can gain potentially more from global free trade than from RTA's, many recent RTA's have been more comprehensive in their liberalization of agricultural trade liberalization than the Uruguay Round. A strong multilateral process can help ensure that RTA's are trade creating, rather than protectionist.International Relations/Trade,