Free Trade Treaties with US should be Discarded, say Experts
Havana, Feb 8 (Prensa Latina) Free trade bilateral agreements with the United States should be discarded for their negative impact on developing economies, according to economists attending the 7th Meeting on Globalization and Development Problems.
In work group no.2 on the perspective of world trade, professor Juan Manuel Lopez Caballero of Colombia, said that for nations like Mexico and his own country declining productivity in agriculture had made imports more attractive, destroying production and increasing domestic inequality.
Competitiveness is currently about innovation, which is ever more costly and cannot cover the developing countries´production costs, making the rift wider between rich and poor, said Lopez Caballero.
A delegate from Brazil recommended to discard the free trade agreements between peripheral and center nations due to the disparity of their economies. Bilateral treaties with the US, he said, are all the same.
They are based on comparative advantages, which in their overwhelming majority favor the United States.
One of the panel members said that free trade cannot be considered a lever for development. The NAFTA (signed between Mexico, the US and Canada), now in its eleventh year, has benefited Mexican sectors like autoparts and clothing (maquilas) while devastating others and increasing foreign vulnerability.
The 7th Internacional Meeting of Economists ending next Friday, is attended by about 1,300 professionals, researchers and 15 regional and multilateral organizations.
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Neoliberalism Hinders Progress in Latin America
Havana, Feb 8 (Prensa Latina) Neoliberal structural reforms forced on Latin American economies have strangled regional development, said Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC), Jose Luis Machinea.
Machinea -that is attending the 7th Conference on Globalization and Development underway in this capital with more than 1,000 guests from 36 countries- also gave a master conference at Havana University´s Aula Magna.
He said that economic opening and privatization at regional economies just sent poverty and inequality sky rocketing as there are many more people living today with fewer mechanisms of social protections compared to 15 years back.
It is an urgent need to find true alternatives for Neoliberalism, formulas giving a more comprehensive vision of development, providing the state with more relevant roles in terms of social and productive policies along with balanced development policies.
Machinea said Latin America needs to deploy common stands at international forums to change or at least influence globalization. The development rate for Latin America in 2004 was 5.5%, the largest in 25 years, and the figure reflects regional advance save Haiti.
However they never reflected the social situation of the poorest sectors as very few managed to cut unemployment despite their growth, adding that its growth remains rampant.
Exports are the most dynamic factor within such growth, for in addition to improving prices they also upgrade the physical volume thanks to the Chinese miracle.
The ECLAC executive also denounced regional dependence from foreign financing and its volatility as such instability scares away investors, and impedes the elimination of poverty and hunger.
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