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11. Caribbean Tourism: Igniting the Engines of Sustainable Growth

Author:
Anthony T. Bryan
Publication Date:
11-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:
Tourism drives economic growth in ways that make it one of the best engines for job creation and development for poor countries that possess natural beauty and relevant infrastructure. The industry is highly labor intensive and encourages entrepreneurship. Under its ambit, property owners, restaurants, and local suppliers of goods and services, among others, develop the habits of risk taking without which no economy can realize its full potential. Tourism holds out the prospect of a better life for those stakeholders who make money from it. Not unlike trade, it improves an economy's competitiveness. Trade does so because it stimulates local suppliers to match the quality and variety of imported goods. Tourism does so because returning travelers to a destination demand the goods and services they have seen in other countries (Elliott 2001).
Topic:
Development, Environment, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United States, Latin America, and Caribbean

12. Protest and Collaboration: Transnational Civil Society Networks and the Politics of Summitry and Free Trade in the Americas

Author:
Patricio Korzeniewicz and William C. Smith
Publication Date:
09-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:
This paper examines the politics of hemispheric integration exemplified by the Summits of the Americas held in Miami (1994), Santiago (1998), and Quebec (2001) and the negotiations over the creation of a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Our basic premise is that political and institutional arrangements articulating state, society, and economy in Latin America are currently in the midst of a process of reconfiguration unleashed by the acceleration of globalization and attendant crises of state-centered development strategies. More specifically, we believe the Americas are witnessing the emergence of an ensemble of new social and political actors, among the most salient of which are new social movements and civil society organizations (CSOs), organized in networks operating at the domestic, regional, and global levels.
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy
Political Geography:
United States, America, South America, Latin America, Central America, Caribbean, North America, and Miami

13. The Impact of MERCOSUR on the Automobile Industry

Author:
Jerry Haar and Thomas A. O'Keefe
Publication Date:
09-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:
A transformation of the automotive industry, particularly the segment involved in production of finished vehicles, has taken place in the Southern Common Market (Mercado Común del Sur/Mercado Comum do Sul—MERCOSUR/MER-COSUL) region of South America, at a time when MERCOSUR member states opened their economies to global competition and to participation in an ambitious subregional economic integration project. This Agenda Paper provides an overview of the factors that have contributed to this recent industry transformation. The paper also examines the factors involved in the formal incorporation of the automotive sector into the MERCOSUR project and discusses the impact this development is like-ly have on the subregional automobile industry,
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy
Political Geography:
United States, South America, Latin America, and North America

14. Preferential Treatment in Trade: Is There Any Room Left in the Americas?

Author:
Fernando Masi
Publication Date:
08-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:
This paper evaluates the costs and benefits of changes brought by the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) on special and differential treatment (S); shows how these changes affected the new regional integration processes in the American continent; and examines whether this issue is still a priority of developing countries' agendas. Large concessions offered by developing countries in exchange for access to markets automatically led to “trade graduation.” Thus, S has lost its former significance among developing countries. Moreover, nonreciprocal treatment was retained for least developed countries, which do not even enjoy this type of treatment under the so-called “new trade-related issues” of services, investment, and intellectual property rights.
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy
Political Geography:
United States, America, South America, Latin America, Central America, Caribbean, and North America

15. Geography, Markets, Resources, and Development: The Assets of the Americas Revisited

Author:
L. Ronald Scheman
Publication Date:
07-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:
In May 1996, the price of copper crashed from US$2,600 to $1,775 per ton. The Sumitomo Corporation of Japan acknowledged unprecedented losses of $2.6 billion from unauthorized trading by its chief copper trader, one of the faceless manipulators of the international commodities markets, Yasuo Hamanaka. Among the major banks caught in this modern variation of the Ponzi scheme were J.P. Morgan and the London Metal Exchange. Chile, whose economy was highly dependent on income from the commodity, was quickly and painfully reminded that the highly leveraged markets on which it depended, even in the hands of the most reputable institutions, are fragile and subject to unexpected forces beyond its control. Copper prices began a downward spiral, and they have not yet recovered.
Topic:
Development, Environment, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United States, America, and Caribbean

16. Immigration and Integration in the Americas

Author:
Max J. Castro
Publication Date:
05-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:
Shortly after he was elected president of Mexico in 2000, Vicente Fox made the United States and Canada a bold proposal: Why not begin a long-range process that would lead to expanding the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) into a full-fledged North American Common Market, featuring open borders for the free movement of people as well as goods? And, in the short run, would the United States agree to a significant increase in legal immigration in exchange for Mexico's pledge to crack down on undocumented immigration?.
Topic:
Human Rights and Migration
Political Geography:
United States, America, Canada, and North America

17. Free Trade and Worker Displacement: The Trade Adjustment Assistance Act and the Case of NAFTA

Author:
Jerry Haar and Antonio Garrastazu
Publication Date:
02-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:
Trade liberalization, a fundamental feature of U.S. economic policy since the end of the Second World War, has increasingly become a contentious domestic political issue during the last decade. Proponents and opponents of free trade transcend political party affiliation, industry, occupation, geographical locale, income level, age, and other socioeconomic and demographic factors. In addition, the U.S. public and its leaders for the most part hold qualified, mixed, or inconsistent opinions about trade liberalization and the larger and rapidly increasing phenomenon known as globalization. In a February 9-14, 2000, nationwide poll conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates, a majority of respondents (64 percent compared to 27 percent) stated that free trade with other countries is good for the United States. On the other hand, an NBC News/ W all Street Journal poll several months later asked interviewees to respond to the following statement: “Foreign trade has been bad for the U.S. economy because cheap imports from abroad have hurt wages and cost jobs here at home.” Forty-eight percent of the respondents answered that it has been “bad” and 34 percent “good.”
Topic:
Industrial Policy and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United States and Latin America

18. The Mined Road to Peace in Guatemala

Author:
Susanne Jonas
Publication Date:
09-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:
This paper presents a political history and interpretation of the Guatemalan peace process, its turning points, and its crises. Beyond the significance of the process for Guatemala itself, the story of the peace negotiations holds fascinating and surprising lessons for a conflict-ridden world. Highlighted are the dynamics of the negotiation in its different stages, the role of the UN as a central player, its interactions with the key Guatemalan players, and some suggested hypotheses about the effects of the UN involvement.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Peace Studies, and United Nations
Political Geography:
United States

19. Free Trade in the Americas: Fulfilling the Promise of Miami and Santiago

Author:
Stephen Lander and Ambler Moss
Publication Date:
04-1998
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:
The creation of a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) was the bold centerpiece of the Summit of the Americas held in Miami in December 1994, and the FTAA recently received further impetus at the Summit of the Americas II in Santiago, Chile. This Agenda Paper, comprises two essays, one an overview of the process by Ambler Moss, “Moving Toward a Free Trade Area of the Americas,” and the other a look forward by Stephen Lande, “Launching Negotiations and Concrete Progress by the Millennium,” which assesses the progress made to date in working toward the FTAA and particularly examines the subject of “business facilitation” or measures designed to enhancethe flows of trade even as the FTAA is being negotiated.
Topic:
International Cooperation and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United States, America, and Latin America

20. As Mexico Imploded: Action and Inaction in the United States

Author:
Sidney Weintraub
Publication Date:
07-1997
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:
On December 20, 1994, Mexican financial and monetary authorities raised the band within which the peso was permitted to fluctuate by 15 percent. They expected a short-lived shock, some economic adjustment, and then back to business as usual with a modestly devalued peso. Mexico, after all, had a history of currency devaluations, particularly during the transitions from one administration to another. Beyond that, Mexico was not a world monetary powerhouse and what it did would not normally attract great or sustained international attention.
Topic:
Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United States, Latin America, and Mexico