Chile's Place in Latin America

[at46]

I read a stat recently that suprised me.

Argentina has exactly one free trade agreement, mercosur.

Most emerging markets have on average 7.

No idea what the total is for chile, but they are prety loose with the free trade pen.

You would think that considering just due to proximity, chile would have massive cross boarder trade with argentina. Most however is fairly informal / private indivduals.

Argentina exports USD 2.3 billion to Chile (1.3%). Chile exports USD 807 million to Argentina (1.2%). It will grow. I mean, you couldn't find decent yerba mate in Chile a few years ago but now it's everywhere.
https://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/arg/
https://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/ ... stinations

[nwdiver]

I read a stat recently that suprised me.

Argentina has exactly one free trade agreement, mercosur.

Most emerging markets have on average 7.

No idea what the total is for chile, but they are prety loose with the free trade pen.

You would think that considering just due to proximity, chile would have massive cross boarder trade with argentina. Most however is fairly informal / private indivduals.

Argentina exports USD 2.3 billion to Chile (1.3%). Chile exports USD 807 million to Argentina (1.2%). It will grow. I mean, you couldn't find decent yerba mate in Chile a few years ago but now it's everywhere.
https://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/arg/
https://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/ ... stinations

I think the Argie's biggest exports to Chile are cereals and soya, things Chile doesn't produce much of, Chile uses it agrarian areas to produce high value exports, smart move.........the products Chile buys are commodities they buy because they are closer......the Argie's could sell gas to Chile but that's not happening for very silly reasons, can you say Bolivia (ok to be fair they do sell some gas.....)

[Huelshoff]

I read a stat recently that suprised me.

Argentina has exactly one free trade agreement, mercosur.

Most emerging markets have on average 7.

No idea what the total is for chile, but they are prety loose with the free trade pen.

You would think that considering just due to proximity, chile would have massive cross boarder trade with argentina. Most however is fairly informal / private indivduals.

Its been a while since I looked, but a few years ago Chile had the most of any developing country. These are FTAs and RTAs. The difference is technical.

[41southchile]

If it's one thing that the left and the right have had an unwritten agreement on in Chile since the return to democracy, is that foreign investment and the protection of rights for foreign investors as well as trade opportunities and argeements is fundamental for the economic and overall success of Chile. Something both Lagos and Bachelet knew very well too. You could argue that in some ways at present there is more certainty in Chile than many developed countries as to what the rules are regarding trade and investment in Chile .

[Huelshoff]

Spot on, in all regards. It may have its roots in the dictatorship, but that elite consensus on liberal market policy remains strong. Its even more noticeable in comparison to most other Latin American countries. The central bank has also been important. Looking at the US, I'd have agree that Chile is more predictable. At least Chilean policy makers understand the basics of trade and finance as they work in the world today.

[admin]

The last few years chile was importing lng gas, and reselling it to argentina because argentina's gas industry was such a mess after christian expropriated a bunch of companies.

Still my point remains a couple billion dollars in trade mas o menos, with a direct neighbor is stupidly small. Chile and argentina should be doing more trade than the pacific alliance countries. Hell, if they could pull their own political mess together, they should be part of the pacific alliance.

Chilean companies are expanding heavily in to peru, colombia, and mexico; while most chilean companies seem to be hanging on to their positions in argentina because there is no good way to get out of their legacy investments, but very few talk about increasing investment. In fact, i tend to stay away from any company that talks about increasing investment in argentina, because it makes me question what else the manegment is screwing up.

All of it comes down to politics. If the country in latin america has a fragil political system that major policy swings around in the breeze with each headline and electiin, then their economy will never stabilize.

[admin]

Case in point, cencusud has been getting wacked by their argentina imvestment for years now. Of course they got other issues.

http://www.latercera.com/pulso/noticia/ ... zo/178375/

[admin]

Here is why bolivia will never be a contender in the lithium market, and pretty much every other market:

http://www.americasquarterly.org/conten ... ermany-pay

[admin]

Colombia has been accepted to the oecd

http://www.financecolombia.com/joining- ... omic-club/

Colombia, in spite a few reservations aboit log-term stability, is a country that strikes me as a rising star. It has a lot of potential.

[nwdiver]

Colombia has been accepted to the oecd

http://www.financecolombia.com/joining- ... omic-club/

Colombia, in spite a few reservations aboit log-term stability, is a country that strikes me as a rising star. It has a lot of potential.

And it has a Caribbean coast......

[41southchile]

Colombia has been accepted to the oecd

http://www.financecolombia.com/joining- ... omic-club/

Colombia, in spite a few reservations aboit log-term stability, is a country that strikes me as a rising star. It has a lot of potential.

And it has a Caribbean coast......

And a homicide rate 10 times that of Chile.......
But also a suicide rate a third of Chile.
As a general rule in countries, it seems the lower the murder rate the higher the suicide rate . If you live in a voilent country you are less likely to want to kill yourself. I suppose that makes sense on some level. Think Japan and Korea very safe countries for murders but very high suicide rates, Honduras and Brazil very high murder rates but low suicides.

[fraggle092]

As a general rule in countries, it seems the lower the murder rate the higher the suicide rate

But Correlation does not imply causation

The OECD is concerned with economic development, not human development. Pity those don't correlate as well as they used to.