Abstract:
International trade interacts with gender equality in different ways. Its impact is not neutral. The various implications of international trade upon them are conditioned by the distinct roles of women and men in economic activity.
Recognising the socio-economic gaps between both sexes, the most recent trade policies include gender provisions as a means to promote the economic empowerment of women.

In some cases, gender-specific provisions are included in agreements to promote equality, and there are also initiatives to mainstream a gender perspective into general trade rules, and into support instruments for the export sector. The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) has been a pioneer in including gender issues into its agenda. A stand-alone chapter on gender and trade in a bilateral trade agreement was incorporated for the first time in the 2016 free-trade agreement between Chile and Uruguay. Another milestone was the Joint Declaration on Gender and Trade, endorsed by 118 countries in the context of the 11th Ministerial Conference of the WTO in December 2017.

At the firm level, trade policy in Latin America and the Caribbean has been developing gender initiatives to further women’s export entrepreneurship.
Future actions on gender and trade can be implemented in three different areas: generation of disaggregated data by sex; development of gender-specific trade policies at the national, bilateral and multilateral levels; and promotion of women’s export entrepreneurship, where trade promotion agencies (TPOs) play a key role.

Resumen:
No disponible

Author: Alicia Frohmann
Full document: 2017, Frohmann, Gender Equality and Trade Policy

Abstract:
The more recent waves of regionalism in Latin America have been associated, respectively, with structuralist, neoliberal and post-liberal economic and political experiments in the region.

Structuralist regionalism was launched in the 1950s and somehow survived until the 1970s; open regionalism followed in the 1980s and 1990s and was replaced, to a certain extent, during the next decade by post-liberal regionalism.

However, the limits, if not demise, of post-liberal experiments in the most important economies of Latin America pose the question of the future of regionalism. In this changing situation, this paper explores several questions about the future of regionalism in Latin America. Will regionalism hold sway over Latin America? Will present integration schemes continue in the region? Will new entities arise? Will there be a convergence in diversity between integration projects in Latin America? Will the new context of global uncertainties lead to a revival of regionalism?

Author: Alberto van Klaveren
Full document: 2017, Klaveren, Regionalism in Latin America -Navigating in the Fog

Abstract:
This paper aims to examine the principal models and visions of regional integration in relation to strategic political projects developed in Latin America. It is necessary to analyse the context of the crisis in the World Order and the geostrategic transition  to understand the regional dynamics.

The study pays particular attention to the development of “autonomous” regionalism since the 21st century, its features and projects that support it. The article also considers the reappearance of “open” regionalism from the development of the Pacific Alliance.

Strategic political projects developed in the region are typified as well as their relationship with the paradigms of integration. To examine these projects, the article considers some strategic actors, speeches and ideologies in conflict.

Resumen:
El presente trabajo se propone dar cuenta del estado de los principales modelos y visiones de integración regional, en relación a los proyectos políticos estratégicos que se desarrollan en América Latina. Ello en un contexto de crisis del Orden Mundial y transición geoestratégica que es necesario analizar para observar la dinámica regional.

Se presta atención, en particular, al progreso a partir del siglo XXI del llamado regionalismo “autónomo”, sus características y proyectos que lo sostienen y, por otro lado, a la reaparición del regionalismo “abierto” a partir del desarrollo de la Alianza del Pacífico. Se tipifican proyectos políticos estratégicos que se despliegan en la región y su relación con los paradigmas de integración, considerando a algunos actores estratégicos, discursos e ideologías en pugna.

Author: Gabriel Merino
Spanish Title: Proyectos Estratégicos e Integración Regional en América Latina. El Surgimiento de la Alianza del Pacífico, el Fortalecimiento del Regionalismo Abierto y el Retroceso del Regionalismo Autónomo
Full document: 2017, Merino, Proyectos Estratégicos e Integración Regional en América Latina- La Alianza del Pacífico

Abstract:
This paper develops an analysis of how macroeconomic convergence among Mexico, Colombia, Peru, and Chile has translated into a non-intentional institutional and similar constitutional order, in areas as important as fiscal and monetary stability. The current reality opens many possibilities for deep financial integration and regulatory cooperation. These aspects are not sufficiently reflected in the Treaty and the Additional Protocol.

In fact, these instruments have followed the standard practice of previous Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) under the NAFTA model on financial services treatment that does not fit adequately with the objective of creating a free trade zone based on the free movement of capital and financial services.

An example of this reality is the timid development of mutual recognition of financial service authorisations in FTAs in contrast to the technical agenda of future developments in the Pacific Alliance. In this context, this paper offers some specific proposals for the peculiar institutional construction of the Pacific Alliance and regulatory cooperation. The proposals are based on the soft law experience of partners and the levels of convergence already obtained. The paper also reviews eventual consistency problems between financial integration and other international commitments of partners.

Resumen:
No disponible

Author: Manuel Monteagudo
Full document: 2017, Monteagudo, The Pacific Alliance in Search for a Financial Integration- So Close and Yet so Far

Abstract:
Contrary to the conventional literature studying regional phenomena and according to the avatars of the European experience, I adopt a global and historical reading to explain the crafting of regional configurations as structural elements of the contemporary world space.

First, the article talks about how, from the middle of the 20th century, the regional integration manifests around the planet. Then, I highlight the interdependent relationships of the regionalism boom within the 90’s with the socio-historic process of the free trade barriers elimination. Finally, the article argues the consolidation of the inter-regionalism in parallel to the birth of the trans-regionalism in the 21st century.

Resumen:
Al contrario de la literatura convencional, que estudia los fenómenos regionales según los avatares de la experiencia europea, el autor adopta una lectura histórica y global para explicar la constitución de configuraciones regionales como elementos estructurantes del espacio mundial contemporáneo.

Primero señala cómo, desde mediados del siglo XX, la integración regional se manifiesta en todo el planeta. Enseguida, focalizado en la década de 1990, resalta los vínculos interdependientes del auge del regionalismo con el proceso sociohistórico de supresión de barreras al libre comercio. Finalmente, argumenta que en el siglo XXI se ha consolidado el interregionalismo y, en paralelo, germina el transregionalismo.

Author: Giovanni Molano-Cruz
Spanish Title: La Construcción de un Mundo de Regiones
Full Document: 2017, Molano, La Construcción de un Mundo de Regiones

Abstract:
Not available

Resumen:
El punto de partida de esta publicación son las memorias de la XII Cumbre de la Alianza del Pacífico (AP), llevada a cabo en Cali, Colombia, el 29 y 30 de junio del 2017, sobre un tema de total trascendencia para el proceso de integración, sus relaciones con Asia-Pacífico. En ese marco, se centra en el principal resultado obtenido en la Cumbre: la creación de la figura de Estado Asociado (EA), la cual se inauguró con cuatro países candidatos que son Australia, Canadá, Nueva Zelanda y Singapur.

La revista cuenta con tres contenidos que presentan un análisis acerca de la figura de Estado Asociado:

1. Un artículo que se fundamenta en la participación en las actividades de acceso público en la XII Cumbre, el levantamiento de información in situ y las relatorías de las plenarias, paneles y ruedas de prensa en el IV Encuentro Empresarial de la AP[…]. Adicionalmente, se realizó una revisión de fuentes primarias y literatura para complementar esos insumos;

2. Perfiles económicos de los cuatro asociados; y

3. Tips de negociación con cada uno de esos cuatro países y la presentación de algunas oportunidades específicas para el caso colombiano.

La finalidad de la publicación es construir memorias de las Cumbres de la AP y presentar estudios de los logros obtenidos en las mismas. Al ser éstas la principal reunión de la Alianza es un espacio donde se genera conocimiento muy valioso de primera mano. Frente a ese espacio se constata un déficit de información sistematizada y pública, lo que ha ocasionado que una parte importante del conocimiento se pierda. Esta publicación está direccionada a cubrir dicha falencia, para de esa forma promover procesos de rendición de cuentas con este tipo de insumos pioneros que aportan a la gestión de conocimiento.

Institutional Author: Universidad ICESI
Editors: Vladimir Rouvinski, Julio Cesar Alonso, José Roberto Concha, José Miguel Terán, Oscar Gómez and  Cristian Camilo Hoyos
Spanish title: Memorias de la XII Cumbre de la Alianza del Pacífico: Los Estados Asociados.
Full document: 2017, PEAP, Memorias de la XII Cumbre de la Alianza del Pacífico- Los Estados Asociados

Abstract:
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the unintended political effects of economic interdependence among the South American members of the Pacific Alliance. The study traces the evolution of their mutual trade in relation to the intensity of their military competitive dynamics from 2001 to 2015.

Two measurement instruments are used: an intra-regional trade index based on commerce data, and a coordination index based on arms purchases. The question is whether the formation of the Alliance and trade relations now embedded in it have had any effect on the political balance (cooperation-conflict).

Issues concerning the method are discussed as well as the implications of the research for the inter-theory debates. The last part briefly discusses the historical understanding of regional conflicts and normative aims of regional integration.

Resumen:
El texto aborda los posibles efectos políticos no intencionados de la interdependencia económica entre los miembros sudamericanos de la Alianza del Pacífico examinando el desarrollo de sus relaciones comerciales en relación con la intensidad de sus dinámicas militares de competencia entre 2001 y 2015.

Se emplean dos instrumentos de medición: un índice de comercio intragrupal basado en datos de comercio exterior y un índice de coordinación basado en datos de compras militares. Los resultados permiten observar si la creación de la Alianza del Pacífico y el comercio intragrupal han tenido efecto en el carácter de las relaciones políticas. Se discuten los alcances y limitaciones del método y las implicancias de la investigación para el debate inter-teórico. Finalmente, se discuten brevemente el carácter histórico de la conflictividad y los rasgos normativos del integracionismo regional.

Author: Juan Francisco Morales Giraldo
Spanis Title: La Alianza del Pacífico y los Efectos Políticos de la Interdependencia Económica
Full document: 2017, Morales, La Alianza del Pacífico y los Efectos Políticos de la Interdependencia Económica

Abstract:
The Pacific Alliance (PA) is a regional integration initiative comprised of Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. With 215 million inhabitants, the PA’s countries account for just over 40% of Latin American GDP, as well as 52% of total trade and 45% of FDI in the region.

They are also the four nations that occupy the top four places for Latin America in the 2016 World Bank’s Doing Business index. As a bloc, they aspire to become a platform for political articulation and projection to the world, with an emphasis on the Asia-Pacific region.

Indeed, an example of these shared objectives is the Authorised Economic Operator (AEO), an institution born after the establishment of the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), as a part of a multi-layered cargo enforcement strategy.

Through this program, the CBP works with the trade community to strengthen international supply chains and improve border security. The AEO Program is, at the same time, part of a much larger and ambitious global initiative, supported by both the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Customs Organization(WCO). Each of these international institutions has encouraged new measures towards Trade Facilitation, where the SAFE Framework is a specific application of the principles set by the Bali Package.

The AEO Program is aimed at cooperation based on 3 pillars:

(1) Customs-to-Customs;
(2) Customs-to-Business and Authorised Economic Operator; and
(3) Cooperation between Customs and other Government and Inter-Government agencies.

This research portrays an up-to-date status of the AEO Programs in the PA, while shining a light on the different obstacles these programs have encountered and what probable outcomes will be in the coming years.

Our primary goal of this investigation is to answer two questions:
1. What is the current situation of the AEO programs within the Pacific Alliance?
2. What impact will the PA’s AEO programs have in the medium term? Can these programs become as successful as C-TPAT?

Author: Jorge Vega Cancino
Full document: 2017, Vega, The Authorized Economic Operator in the Pacific Alliance