Abstract:
In South America there are sub-regional trading blocs or continental political forums, but there is still no space that can be considered as an economic union. These trading blocs in the region should be studied with special attention, since its implications on the regional economy can be negative. The CAN, Mercosur and the newly formed Pacific Alliance, are the three areas of trade integration in the region. Both inside and outside of said blocs benefits of different nature can be perceived, however the relationship between them is negligible. This fact, rather than strengthening continental integration may involve perhaps not a break, but a clear division within the South American economy.

Resumen:
En Suramérica existen bloques subregionales de comercio o foros políticos continentales, pero no hay todavía ningún espacio que pueda ser considerado como una unión económica. Dichos bloques comerciales en la región deben ser estudiados con especial detenimiento, puesto que sus implicaciones sobre la economía regional pueden ser negativas.
La CAN, el Mercosur y la recientemente creada Alianza del Pacífico, son los tres espacios de integración comercial en la región. Tanto en el interior como en el exterior de dichos bloques se pueden percibir beneficios de diferente naturaleza, sin embargo las relaciones entre ellos es prácticamente nula. Ese hecho, en lugar de fortalecer la conjunción continental, puede implicar no una ruptura, pero, sí una clara división en el interior de la economía suramericana.

Author: Julio César Botero Robayo
Full document: 2013, Botero, Una Integración Dividida- las Múltiples Iniciativas que Generan Dificultades para Lograr una Integración Regional en Latinoamérica

Abstract:
This paper analyses the current scenario of regional economic integration in Latin America. Thus, we argue that a fragmentation of regional integration in three axes currently exists in Latin America: an open integration axis, a revisionist axis and an anti-systemic axis. In each of these axes, different models of regional integration have been adopted.
By using Max Weber’s idea on ideal types, we propose three models of regional integration: strategic regionalism, productive regionalism and social regionalism. In the paper, we examine interactions between the current axis and models of economic integration in Latin America.

Resumen:
Este trabajo se propone revisar el escenario actual de la integración regional en América Latina. En este sentido, se argumenta que en la región existe actualmente una fragmentación de la integración económica en tres ejes: un eje de integración abierta, un eje revisionista y un eje anti-sistémico. En cada uno de estos ejes se han adoptado distintos modelos económicos de integración. Acudiendo a Max Weber proponemos la existencia de tres tipos ideales de modelos de integración económica: el regionalismo estratégico, el regionalismo productivo y el regionalismo social. En el trabajo se analizan las interacciones existentes entre los ejes y los modelos de integración existentes en la región latinoamericana.

Author: Jose Briceño Ruiz
Full document: 2013, Briceño, Ejes y Modelos en la Etapa Actual de la Integración Económica Regional en América Latina

Abstract:
The aim of this thesis has been to provide “Pacific Alliance” of Latin America with a bundle of recommendations to make a successful economic integration with “Asian Pacific” region. It seems that following the Comparative Advantage theory developed by David Ricardo (1772-1823), under the incipient technological progress has damaged some developing economies, to such an extent that their specialization on exploiting and exporting raw materials are condemned them to live in a vicious circle. This is a compelling situation between getting high rents from natural resource exports, low investment in Research & Development to innovation, reaching also poor Human Development Indexes (“The Curse of Natural Resources”). On the other hand, there is a virtuous circle between manufacture exports by developing high-tech industries, high investment in Research & Development to innovate, reaching also high Human Development Indexes; such as Asian Tigers in the last decades (“Learning by Exporting”).

These two central hypotheses have been testing under cross section econometric assessment, including more than one hundred countries for the three last decades (1981-2010). There are evidences to fulfilling both. The exports of Ores and Metals and other raw material oriented goods have negative impacts, while manufacture exports positive impact on the economic growth. Similarly, service exports have led the economic growth in the last decades due to Technology & Communication and International Commercial activities are increasing faster. They are significant and robust explanatory variables. Therefore, governments from raw material export oriented countries, like “Pacific Alliance”, should take into account Pragmatic Innovation Agenda and Technology Policies to get better sustainable living conditions. Otherwise, they will still suffering from the volatility of commodities demand and prices, low Research & Development investment, poor Human Development Index and social
conflicts.

Author: Hernán Ricardo Briceño
Full document: 2013, Briceno, Industry Oriented Asian Tigers and the Natural Resource based Pacific Alliance Economic Growth Models

Abstract:
The Alliance grew out of the growing frustration of the region’s most open and dynamic economies with the failures of earlier hemispheric integration efforts. The Alliance is, in short, the pragmatic application of the lessons of those failures. In a region where trade and integration agreements seem based on any and every criteria except actually advancing trade and integration, the Pacific Alliance stands apart.

Authors: Carlo Dade, Carl Meacham
Full document: 2013, Dade & Meacham, The Pacific Alliance- An Example of Lessons Learned

Abstract:
The study begins by putting on balance different ways to assess the political success of the Pacific Alliance (PA) during the few years of its existence. The text insists that the success was comprehensive among extra-regional governments and very limited among the governments of the countries in the Asia Pacific (the geostrategic target for the PA projection) countries.

In this context, the text proposes explanations for both situations. On the one hand, the document discusses the fundamental principles of the Pacific Alliance on the basis of legal axes that marked the convergence of the Mexican government with the authorities of the European Union in the Democratic Clause-Mexico Global Agreement European Union. The Accord refers to legal principles that require contracting parties to respect, within the scope of the sovereignty of each one, fundamental democratic principles.

Moreover, the paper analyses the factors limiting a similar convergence between the members of the PA and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). On the PA-side, it is the express wish to promote democracy and human rights, illustrated by the reforms of the fraction X of the Article 89 of the Constitution of the United Mexican States. On the ASEAN side, it is the vindication of the principles of the Charter of the United Nations; in its fundamental documents, the Association stresses non-intervention in the affairs of other States, renunciation of the threat or use of force, etc.

Resumen:
El estudio pone sobre la balanza diferentes maneras de evaluar el éxito político alcanzado por la Alianza del Pacífi co (AP) durante su existencia. Insiste en que el éxito ha sido muy amplio entre gobiernos de países extra-regionales y muy limitado entre los gobiernos de los países de Asia del Pacífico. El texto propone explicaciones sobre los alcances diferenciados de la proyección de la AP. Analiza principios básicos de la Alianza del Pacifico sobre la base de los ejes jurídicos que marcaron la convergencia del gobierno mexicano con las autoridades de la Unión Europea en la Cláusula Democrática del Acuerdo Global Unión Europea-México.

Este acuerdo se trata de principios jurídicos que obligan a las partes contratantes a respetar, dentro del ámbito de la soberanía de cada una de ellas, los principios democráticos fundamentales. Por otra parte, se analizan los factores que limitan una convergencia análoga entre los integrantes de la AP y los de la Asociación de Naciones del Sureste de Asia (ANSEA). Del lado de la AP, se refleja la voluntad expresa de promover la democracia y los derechos humanos, ilustrada por las reformas del artículo 89 de la Constitución Política de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos. Del lado de la ANSEA, se trata de la reivindicación de los principios de la Carta de las Naciones, recuperados en los documentos fundamentales de la asociación.

Author: Juan José Ramírez Bonilla
Spanish Title: La Alianza del Pacífico y Asia del Pacífico: Paralelos y Limitantes Jurídicos para la Cooperación Interregional
Full document: 2016, Ramirez, La Alianza del Pacífico y Asia del Pacífico- Paralelos y Limitantes Jurídicos para la Cooperación Interregional

Abstract:
A significant step forward has been taken by the Member States when signing the Additional Protocol to the Framework Agreement, which entered into force on May 1, 2016. The agreement contains specific provisions with the aim to create a free-trade zone, through the inclusion of key matters such as an investment guarantee regime and dispute resolution mechanisms, market access, rules of origin, trade facilitation and customs cooperation, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers to trade, government procurement, cross‑border trade in services, maritime transport, financial services, electronic commerce, telecommunications, institutional affairs, and dispute resolution.

This Additional Protocol builds on and expands existing bilateral trade agreements. The agreement reinforces liberalisation policies on goods, services, capitals, and people of the Pacific Alliance, and has achieved a 92% liberalisation on tariffs upon its entry into force. The remaining tariffs will be reduced in different periods between 3 and 17 years, except for agreed exceptions.
Likewise, the inclusion of a cumulation of origin mechanism will allow for production linkages in the region that will lead to the restructuring of productive systems in each country, where their individual industrial conditions will be favoured.

This Handbook offers a summary of the most relevant Chapters of the Additional Protocol to the Framework Agreement of the Pacific Alliance and the First Amendment Protocol to the Additional Protocol to the Framework Agreement of the Pacific Alliance, which we consider interesting and useful for our clients’ business.

Resumen:
No disponible

Institutional Author: Baker & McKenzie
Full document: 2017, Baker McKenzie, Handbook Pacific Alliance Framework

Abstract:
A new map of regional integration that builds upon and questions the traditional paradigms of international insertion is being formed. This situation takes place in the context of the recent processes of regionalisation in Latin America that respond to the increasing multipolarity and interdependence in the contemporary global scenario.

The Pacific Alliance (PA) stands out as an innovative regional project of open regionalism, with specific features that provide it with an identity still under construction. The purpose of this article is to identify the continuities and ruptures evidenced by the  PA in terms of open regionalism as its underlying theoretic-conceptual framework. The article concludes that the PA has been configured as a distinct process compared to previous experiences with open regionalism in Latin America, with specific features that do not allow reducing the understanding of this regional actor to a typical case of open regionalism.

Resumen:
En el marco de los recientes procesos de regionalización que vive América Latina como respuesta a la creciente multipolaridad e interdependencia que identifican el escenario global contemporáneo se configura un nuevo mapa de la integración regional que retoma y cuestiona los paradigmas tradicionales de inserción internacional.

La Alianza del Pacífico (AP) se destaca como proyecto regional novedoso heredero del regionalismo abierto, con rasgos específicos que le imprimen una identidad propia aún en construcción. El objetivo del artículo es identificar las continuidades y las rupturas que evidencia la AP frente al regionalismo abierto como su marco teórico-conceptual inspirador. Se concluye que la ap se configura en sus pocos años de existencia como un proceso distinto de experiencias previas de regionalismo abierto en América Latina, con rasgos específicos que no permiten reducir la comprensión de este actor regional a un estudio de caso típico del enfoque del regionalismo abierto.

Author: Carlos Alberto Cháves García
Spanish Title: Aproximación Teórica y Conceptual para el Análisis de la Alianza del Pacífico
Full document: 2017, Chaves, Aproximación Teórica y Conceptual para el Análisis de la Alianza del Pacífico

Abstract:
The present article aims to present and discuss the main factors that contribute to the development of the Latin American integration processes and how they act on the institutionalisation of a future model of global governance through a comparative analysis of cases.

In the first part, we establish the methodological premises that are based on the theoretical concepts concerning global governance and the role of the integration processes. This part of the article characterises the weakening of the nation-states and their incapacity to give appropriate answers to the emerging common problems faced by our contemporary society.

Sequentially, we focus our attention on two cases: the Andean Nations Community and the Mercosur to verify the major facts that contribute to the development of these entities and also those ones that demonstrate the peculiar discontinuity of the integration process in the Latin American continent. Finally, we present a general and comparative overview of the cases as a way to reflect on the perspectives of the region and how it could contribute to the future implementation of global governance.

Resumen:
El presente artículo tiene como finalidad presentar y debatir los principales factores que contribuyen para el desarrollo del proceso de integración latinoamericano y cómo actúan en la conformación de un futuro modelo de gobernanza global, a través de una propuesta de análisis comparado de casos concretos.

Así, en la primera parte, se establecen las premisas metodológicas que pautan la discusión, fundadas en los conceptos teóricos sobre gobernanza global y el papel desempeñado por los procesos de integración respecto al tema, caracterizando el debilitamiento de los Estados-nación ante la incapacidad de atribuir respuestas contundentes a los problemas emergentes y comunes de nuestra sociedad contemporánea.

Posteriormente, se presenta la investigación de dos casos concretos: la Comunidad Andina de Naciones y el Mercosur, y se hace una verificación de los principales hechos que contribuyeran para el desarrollo de tales entidades y también aquellos que, paralelamente, demuestran los factores que actúan en la peculiar discontinuidad de los proyectos de integración en el continente latinoamericano. Finalmente, se realiza una constatación general y de contenido comparativo de los casos estudiados como forma de reflejar sobre las perspectivas de la región y cómo esta podrá contribuir para una futura implementación de una gobernanza global.

Author: Ernani Contipelli
Spanis Title: Governanza Global y Análisis Comparado de los Procesos de Integración en América Latina: Comunidad Andina y el Mercado del Sur
Full document: 2017, Contipelli, Governanza Global y Análisis Comparado de los Procesos de Integración en América Latina