Rather than focusing old time notions of levels of economic and military aid or large inspiring policy declarations, analysts and policymakers should focus their attention where policy and its return (i.e. influence) is most impactful—communication, contact and exchange that improve the daily lives of Latin American and Caribbean citizens.
The story of dashed hopes and sudden halts is a painful yet familiar one for all of us. As we lick our wounds and take stock of yet another lost opportunity, we ask ourselves yet again: can the continent ever escape the boom-bust cycles that have left our economies trapped in middle income status?
The TransPacific Partnership that is currently being negotiated will be neither an apocalypse nor a panacea. But what it will do is provide critical legal and institutional guarantees that will draw Asian investors to Latin America.
The so-called “surge” of unaccompanied children from Central America has not ended. Not only has the U.S. policy response been insufficient, the language describing the phenomenon has been offensive and unhelpful.
The negotiation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership should force a serious discussion of the goals of U.S. bilateral development assistance in the region. As U.S. policy invests more to promote trade integration and link it to global geo-strategic goals, it’s time to think about how to recast development assistance to help countries participate and compete in these new trade agreements.
