Among the panelists at the IDB seminar on the New Regionalism were, left to right: Sam Laird, chief, Research Section, UNCTAD, Switzlerland; IDB senior trade economist Antoni Estevadeordal; Roberto Formigoni, presidente, Regione Lombardia of Italy; Herminio Blanco, former secretary of commerce of Mexico; and Rubens Barbosa, Brazil’s ambassador to the United States. (Photo by W. Heinz)

The emergence of more than 20 regional trade pacts in the Western Hemisphere negotiated during the past decade have contributed to dramatic drops in the average level of tariff barriers, a higher volume of regional trade and more realistic preparation to compete in an increasingly globalized economy, according to a report presented by two IDB trade economists at a seminar Monday.

The paper, “What’s New in the New Regionalism in the Americas,” noted that regional trade negotiations and structures were much more successfully completed during the 1990s after previous attempts failed in prior decades.

“In essence, the new regionalism of the 90s is an integral part of the broad-based structural reforms that have been underway in Latin America since the mid-1980s,” according to the paper presented by Robert Devlin, deputy manager of the IDB’s Integration and Regional Programs Department, and IDB senior trade economist Antoni Estevadeordal.

The paper noted that regional liberalization worked in tandem with other processes, such as active participation by Latin America in the Uruguay Round of trade talks, and that between the mid-1980s and the mid-1990s Latin America unilaterally reduced its average external tariff from more than 40 percent to 12 percent.

The result was “strong average growth of international trade” during the 1990s, especially intraregional exports, which grew from 13 percent of the total in 1990 to 20 percent towards the end of the decade.
Devlin and Estevadeordal said that one of the challenges to moving ahead with broader world trade pacts is the “spaghetti bowl” effect of having differing rules of more than 20 existing regional pacts. Prominent among them are Mercosur, the Andean Pact, the Central American Common Market, the Caribbean Community, and the North American Free Trade Agreement, among others.

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL DIALOGUE IN IDB ANNUAL MEETING

Experts and officials from the social and environmental sectors met here March 11 and 12 during the IDB Annual to examine the successful experience of Brazil’s environmental councils with a view to their application in the process of social dialogue in other Latin America and Caribbean countries.

Participating in the inaugural session were IDB Executive Vice President K. Burke Dillon, ex-president of Chile Patricio Aylwin, and Brazil’s Environment Minister José Carlos Carvalho.

Dillon said that the recent decades have seen improvements in the identification of efficient social policies, but information on the most efficient and effective processes for defining and implementing these policies are still not available. “We want social policies that are embraced by all, and not just by specific governments, political parties and interest groups,” she said.

Aylwin emphasized the importance of the dialogue in creating a national consensus on principal social problems, priorities, and most effective policies for addressing them.

“Although nearly all of our countries have democratic governments, the political systems in many countries still lack solid democratic traditions and a clear common vision of the kind of society that is desired,” said Aylwin.

The Social Policy Dialogue, carried out by the IDB and the Justice and Democracy Corporation, which Aylwin heads, has attempted to demonstrate that in order to efficiently address major social problems it is necessary to create national consensus over a shared analysis of the characteristics and policies needed to overcome them.

Participants described the experience of the Brazilian National Environmental Council (CONAMA) and its counterparts at the state and municipal levels. Unlike other councils in Latin America, CONAMA is not just a consultative group, but rather a deliberative body created to settle conflicts, propose innovations, and resolve important environmental policy and resource management issues.

CONAMA is headed by the Ministry of the Environment and includes broad representation of all sectors of civil society and of the federal, state, and municipal governments. Its decisions have legal authority and are applied at the national level. As provided by law, it can resolve issues that in other countries are settled unilaterally by the action of the relevant ministry.

IGLESIAS, TAVARES, PRESENTED HIGHEST AWARD OF STATE OF CEARA

IDB President Enrique V. Iglesias and Brazil’s Planning Minister Martus Tavares were presented the highest award of the state of Ceará today - a diploma and Medal of the Abolition.

The medal commemorates the abolition of slavery in 1884 by the state of Ceará - the first state in Brazil to take that measure - and is awarded to persons for distinguished public service.