MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Latin America 'unfortunately' has a very low participation in global trade

Rodriguez said that “south-south” trade had increased from less that 5% in 1990 to almost 18% last year, on the back of the integration process

Latin America 'unfortunately' has a very low participation in world trade which is a major challenge for the region, according to Gonzalo Rodriguez, member of Mercosur technical staff, who was one of several speakers at the preamble of Unasur summit.

 World trade in 1950 was equivalent to 8% of global GDP and that percentage climbed to 15% last year “which means that increasingly local production is traded internationally, and that is globalization and world output integration”, argued Gonzalez.

However, “Latam is quite distant from those percentages and convergence becomes crucial for further development” indicated the Mercosur trade expert at the Guayaquil meeting, during a forum on trade, investment and production.

Gonzalez said that “south-south” trade had actually increased from less that 5% in 1990 to almost 18% last year and “this is trade created by the integration process and which Unasur must insist in promoting”.

Likewise in Latin America foreign trade emphasis must move away from the “primary production” process to industrialization that incorporates added value, in direct reference to the region's boom in recent years on the back of soaring prices for commodities.

The business expert said that intra-Mercosur trade (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela) is made up of manufactured goods, which jumped from 52% in 2002 to 77% in 2012.

“Trade which really matters and should be priority in Mercosur is that of manufactured goods, because this has a very strong integration ingredients, and has been increasing, although with not much impact on the global percentages”, concluded Gonzalez.

The two-day Unasur summit in Ecuador is convening leaders from twelve countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela, Surinam and Guyana. A special guest of this summit is Mexico's foreign minister, Jose Antonio Meade.