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Regional Integration in Latin America - The Pacific Alliance a Way Ahead
Featured, In Conversation

Towards a Digital Economy Strategy for the Pacific Alliance?: The Broader Agenda

The Pacific Alliance Blog interviewed Professor Rodrigo Corredor about his recent article on the Pacific Alliance and its digital economy strategy, published in the Colombian Yearbook of International Law.

Mr Corredor is professor and researcher at Universidad Externado de Colombia in Bogota. He holds a Masters in International Economic Law from the World Trade Institute. He has postgraduates in Intellectual Property, Copyrights and New Technologies from Universidad Externado de Colombia and a postgraduate in Public Management and Administrative Institutions from Los Andes University in Bogota. He is currently a visiting fellow at the Centre de Sciences Humaines in New Delhi and a researcher and professors at the Department of Economic Law within Universidad Externado de Colombia. He has previously consulted on managing intellectual property and innovation for projects involving the Andean region and the European Union. His research interests are international economic law, intellectual property, the digital economy, trade in services, and regulation. He has written several journal articles and chapters in edited books on these subjects.

Mr Corredor, how did you become interested in the digital economy topic, particularly in the context of the Pacific Alliance?

The digital economy has become a ubiquitous societal topic. Its international trade incidence is undeniable; the impacts of the current uncontrolled developments and expansion of the digital economy will probably be our research field for the coming years. In the specific context of the PA, the digital economy’s regulatory challenge has followed the same path of a regulatory transplant from the General Data Protection Regulation in the EU (GDPR standards), so my concern is to assess the suitability of such approaches.

What are the main social and economic challenges you see in the deepening of the region’s digital economy?

Among the various challenges, I would like to emphasise the cultural impact of digitalisation. So far, people are enjoying the advantages of the digital platforms in terms of a more even access to cultural products that gives us a sense of integration to a globalised cultural agenda. However, the long-term consequences of unlimited access to our personal data can extend to a cultural erosion phenomenon. This effect is something that regulators and political authorities from the PA countries absolutely disregard.

Why do you argue that following a model inspired by the United States’ FTAs and self-regulation results unsuitable for framing sustainable solutions to the complex challenges of deepening the digital economy in the region?

Continue reading

March 18, 2021by Ana Maria Palacio
Editor's choice

Regionalism in Lock-Down? The Case of the Pacific Alliance

The Pacific Alliance wrapped up this unusual year with its customary presidential meeting between the 10th and the 12th of December 2020. Chile hosted the series of events that, in an unprecedented way, used digital technologies to connect entrepreneurial and government officials across the four members, including the Mexican President — Andrés López Obrador — and the interim Peruvian President  — Francisco Sagasti — who attended by videoconferencing. The meeting expected for mid-2020 had to be postponed due to COVID-19 travelling bans and other health measures. The presidents’ gathering was preceded by a series of sessions from the CEAP, the Council of Ministers and the technical groups.

Thus, it seems timely to recap on the PA’s progress this year, the shortcomings of the mechanism, which is close to its 10th anniversary, and options to move ahead in the near future. These insights consider the declarations and action plans set during this meeting and this year’s achievements.

The COVID-19 Action Plan

The PA celebrates the establishment and implementation of a COVID-19 Action Plan tailored to mitigate the pandemic’s effects and adopt economic recovery measures in thirteen areas including innovation, trade facilitation, information exchange, trade promotion and productive linkages. Following its characteristic practical approach, rather than grand design measures towards long-term economic recovery, the PA’s measures have one of these three scopes.

First, a targeted approach to solving specific problems such as allowing for the use of copies of non-digital origin certificates for product exports. This measure intended to avoid people’s physical movement for the administrative procedure to access preferential tariff treatment under the Commercial Protocol. Moving forward in the area of trade facilitation, this unexpected year calls the members’ attention to speed up the digitalisation of administrative procedures through their single windows and their regional interoperability. Let’s remind ourselves that there is a long road ahead for the full interoperability and electronic transmission of import and export certifications and other documents between the four single windows.

Continue reading

December 29, 2020by Ana Maria Palacio
Spanish, Working Papers

Regional Digital Market –Strategic Aspects

Abstract:
Not available

Resumen:
[…] En la producción de bienes y servicios, la digitalización se concreta en la IoT, la robotización de las actividades productivas y la incorporación de nuevas tecnologías, en particular las de análisis de grandes datos y de inteligencia artificial; así como por un fuerte grado de sustitución de los bienes y servicios tradicionales por sus equivalentes digitales. Las nuevas tecnologías han cambiado también la forma cómo se realiza el comercio, reduciendo el costo del suministro de servicios a través de las fronteras y conectando a empresas a lo largo de las cadenas de valor. En particular, ayudan a superar muchas de limitaciones asociadas a operar en mercados internacionales y llevan a la adopción de nuevos modelos de negocio, la entrada de competidores y un cambio en las fuentes de las ventajas competitivas. La digitalización cambia no sólo la forma en que se lleva a cabo el comercio, sino también quién y qué se negocia; así, un creciente número de transacciones de bajo valor y pequeños envíos cruzan las fronteras. Continue reading

April 29, 2016by Ana Maria Palacio
Reports, Spanish

Convergence between the Pacific Alliance and Mercosur: facing together a challenging international context

Abstract:
Not available

Resumen:
En una coyuntura tan turbulenta como la actual, profundizar la integración regional no es una opción sino un imperativo. Junto con África, América Latina y el Caribe presenta los menores índices de comercio intrarregional del mundo. Apenas el 16% del valor de sus exportaciones se dirige a la propia región, muy por debajo del 50% que registran Asia oriental y América del Norte, y del 64% de la Unión Europea. Asimismo, los encadenamientos productivos entre países de la región son, en general, escasos y débiles.

Un gran obstáculo al comercio y la integración productiva intrarregionales es la fragmentación del espacio económico regional. Hoy coexisten varios mecanismos de integración económica, cada uno de los cuales ha generado sus propias reglas en temas que van desde las normas sanitarias y de protección al consumidor hasta las compras públicas y el tratamiento de la inversión extranjera. Estas discrepancias regulatorias imponen altos costos a las empresas (especialmente a las pequeñas y medianas empresas (pymes)) que desean exportar al mercado regional o invertir en él, y dificultan el desarrollo de cadenas regionales de valor. De este modo, el gran potencial que ofrece el mercado regional, con sus más de 640 millones de habitantes, sigue sin aprovecharse plenamente.
[…]

En este contexto, resulta crucial tender puentes entre los principales mecanismos de integración económica de la región. Por ello, la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL) ha apoyado con entusiasmo la propuesta de “convergencia en la diversidad” entre la Alianza del Pacífico y el MERCOSUR, formulada por el Gobierno de Chile en 2014.

Institutional Author: Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
Spanish Title: La convergencia entre la Alianza del Pacífico y el MERCOSUR: enfrentando juntos un escenario mundial desafiante
Full document: 2018, ECLAC, La convergencia entre la Alianza del Pacífico y el MERCOSUR

March 20, 2016by Ana Maria Palacio

Recent Posts

  • Towards a Digital Economy Strategy for the Pacific Alliance?: The Broader Agenda
  • The Latin American Services Factory for the Asia Pacific Region: Opportunities for the Pacific Alliance
  • Academic and Policy Research About the Pacific Alliance: A Snapshot
  • In Conversation: A Collective Identity in the Pacific Alliance
  • On Social Entrepreneurship and the Pacific Alliance: An Invitation

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Hello my name is Ana Maria Palacio. I have a PhD from the University of Melbourne. This blog is about my thesis project, the Pacific Alliance.

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