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

Abstract:
Trade and investment have been the main drivers of economic development in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and in the member countries of the Pacific Alliance (Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru) in particular, which are the focus of this study. The results of the trade policy reforms made by these four countries are impressive. Exports have increased considerably and a path toward diversification has been forged. Liberalization and foreign investment facilitation efforts also posted outstanding results. To better understand the member countries of the Pacific Alliance, it is necessary to examine their trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) openness, which contributed to average year-on-year growth of 6.3% in gross domestic product (GDP) over the last two-plus decades (1990-2013) compared to the rest of LAC, which posted an average of 5.3%. These aspects are analyzed in Section I.

Differentiating between the FTAs with regard to scope and depth depends, among other factors, on the inclusion of trade related disciplines. A comparative overview of the agreements is undertaken in Section II.

Trade liberalization is expanding between Korea and the Pacific Alliance countries. Progress has been facilitated by Chile´s FTA, which has been in place for the past decade, and by Peru’s FTA, which went into effect in 2011. Similar results can be expected when the Colombia-Korea FTA, signed in 2013, goes into effect. However, after a period of tariff liberalization, it is clear that future gains in bilateral relations are likely to be found in non-tariff-related areas. This is the domain that requires work. Aspects related to non-tariff barriers are covered in the comparative analysis of FTAs signed with Korea in Section II and discussed in the segment on Chile’s FTA with Korea.

Resumen:
No disponible

Editor: Rosario Santa Gadea
Full document: 2015, Santa Gadea, Analysis of Experiences in Trade and Investment between LAC and Korea- The Case of Member Countries of the Pacific Alliance

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

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