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New "Small Grant": Negotiating Alternative Trade Regimes in Latin America – 30.03.07

Trade integration initiatives are multiplying in the Americas. The free trade areas spearheaded by the United States are confronted with a more "alter-globalisation" agenda in the form of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA). Does the confrontation between these alternatives sound the death knell of the project of uniting the economies of the Americas into a single free trade area and mark the beginning of a proliferation of bilateral agreements that will span the ideological spectrum?

Research for this GIAN-supported project will be conducted in four countries which face different internal dynamics and represent distinct models of trade policy and regional integration: Bolivia, Brazil, Chile and Nicaragua. In each of the countries researchers will examine how the interaction between civil society organisations, trans-national business interests, and government trade-related agencies effect the given country’s trade orientation. The research results will be brought together in a framework that aims, on the one hand, to draw some general conclusions about the politics of trade in Latin America, and, on the other hand, to compare the region with trade advocacy and policy-making in Europe. The project results will be presented in a colloquium and published thereafter. The partner institutions carrying forward this project are the University of Geneva, the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), the Graduate Institute of Development Studies (IUED) and the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD).

Related Project(s)

Small Grant - 2007 Negotiating Alternative Trade Regimes in Latin America: the Cases of Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, and Nicaragua

>See the Project