Abstract:
This study combines a review of the potential for integrating production in the region with a targeted survey of regional businesses (conducted by the Integration and Trade Sector of the IDB, in collaboration with private-sector associations in the four member countries).

Efforts to reduce regional supply chain barriers to trade should typically begin with an assessment of the impacts of existing barriers. Input from the private sector can help governments to prioritise barriers based on how and to what degree they restrict the flow of goods within the region, and to generate ideas for initiatives to reduce these barriers.

In this report, survey results provide early signals of which barriers are seen as most restrictive to trade within the Pacific Alliance. Although these results are based on a relatively small sample of about 140 firms and have to be considered as preliminary, they are generally consistent with the findings of the Enabling Trade Index, and the authors believe they are accurate.

Resumen:
not available

Institutional Author: World Economic Forum, Inter-American Development Bank and Bain & Company

Spanish Title: Facilitando el Comercio en la Alianza del Pacífico

Full document: 2014, WEF Enabling Trade- Enabling Trade in the Pacific Alliance

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

Abstract:
The establishment of a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) is one of the priorities of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) to enhance regional economic integration beyond the Bogor Goals, as reflected in the Beijing Roadmap for APEC in 2014. Multiple pathways could converge into the FTAAP, and these include the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). This paper discusses the potential of the Pacific Alliance (PA) to provide an additional pathway that also contributes to the FTAAP process and regional integration in Asia-Pacific.

The analysis suggests that the PA can be considered a comprehensive mechanism that is in line with the Bogor Goals, and its achievements in areas such as market access, services, investment, and new generation issues suggest that it is a WTO+ agreement. However, some issues would need to be negotiated among its members—such as intellectual property, labour, and environmental protection—for the PA to profile itself as a pathway equivalent to the TPP. The PA, however, is more comprehensive than the RCEP. The analysis also suggests that despite having only four members, the PA is a “living agreement” and is open to other APEC economies for membership and, therefore, has the potential to become a region-wide agreement.

Resumen:
No disponible

Authors: Camilo Pérez-Restrepo and Adriana Roldan-Pérez
Full document: 2016, Restrepo & Roldan, Is the Pacific Alliance a Potential Pathway to the FTAAP?

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