Documental incredible de los paises – BRIC
Documental incredible de los paises – BRIC-episodio-1
Del canal Argentino – Infinito
ANDRES OPPENHEIMER of the Miami Herald and CNN Español discusses US Foreign Policy towards Latin America
Note the author of this blog (me) does not always agree with what Mr. Oppenheimer says, but his article no less merits a quick read. Some major points which any reader giving this a quick skim should note –>
1/ The Obama Administration has left the post of Head Latin American affairs vacant for 5 months. So much for making good on promises back in 2008 to forge closer ties with the region… Big disappointment here, but not any worse or better than the disappointment / let down his predecessor Bush Jr also produced. It seems the last President to care at all about the region was Clinton who did more than organize summits… He laid the foundation for FTA’s with countries in the region via NAFTA
2/ Obama did not visit Brazil, the growing powerhouse and member of the BRIC club until 3 years into his presidency. When he did visit, he received nothing but criticism for going through with the official visit between the heads of state of the Western Hemisphere’s two largest economies… because the visit happened to coincide with start of Western Military efforts in Libya. For the US media which pointed the finger at Obama, shame on you, the President does not physically need to be in the United States to be “Commander and Chief,” especially for an internationally organized, and initially French lead military mission. For Obama, shame on you too! It took you three years to visit Brazil! I think for Brazilians this is an obvious insult, but even for the rest of South America (and Latin America as a whole), Obama, Bush Jr. and the United States… well… Latin America is feeling a bit as if they are being ignored. One thing is certain – China is not ignoring Latin America, nor is India, Russia or even small players like Singapore which is investing to expand the Panama Canal.
3/ As Ray Walser, Senior Policy Analyst for Latin America at The Heritage Foundation very appropriately points in a 2009 publication “U.S Policy toward Latin America in 2009 and Beyond” From 1996 to 2006, total U.S. merchandise trade with Latin America grew by 139percent, compared to 96 percent for Asia and 95 percent for the European Union. In 2006, the U.S. exported $223 billion worth of goods to Latin American consumers(compared with $55 billion to China). Fifty-one percent of U.S. energy imports originate from Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, and Brazil.
Excerpt from Oppenheimer’s article –>
U.S. diplomatic ties with Latin America, which have been in limbo for months, got a small boost last week when President Barack Obama nominated Roberta Jacobson as top State Department official in charge of Latin American affairs. But that alone will not do much to revert the gradual loss of U.S. clout in the region.
Granted, the career diplomat gets high marks from almost everybody in Washington’s small world of Latin American affairs specialists. Unlike her predecessor Arturo Valenzuela, a political appointee whose nomination in 2009 was blocked for several months by Conservative republicans, the Senate is expected to easily confirm her nomination.
Among the most urgent issues Jacobson would have to deal with would be the long-stalled U.S. ratification of the free trade deals with Colombia and Panama, the escalating violence in Mexico, and the April 2012, 34-country Summit of the Americas in Colombia.
On a wider spectrum, she would have to find new ways to improve ties with the region at a time when China has eclipsed much of the previous U.S. economic influence in South America’s commodity producing countries.
Click here to read Oppenheimer’s full article via the Kansas City Star
Interesting article written by John Paul Rathbone, Latin America editor of the Financial Times.
Every day Luis Castilla, Peru’s finance minister, says he lights a candle and “prays that China won’t crash”.
His prayers are echoed by many in a region that remains one of the world economy’s few bright spots. South America’s commodity-rich economies grew 5 per cent in the first half of this year. Last year, these new motors of the world economy added half a percentage point to global output.
But slowing Asian demand and plunging commodity prices have raised the spectre that South America, having largely escaped the 2008-09 Great Recession, may not be so lucky this time around.
Main point = Potential new financial crisis in the “Developed World” + slow down in China = Scared Latinos
Click here to read the full article direct from the Financial Times
The current economic and trade conditions in the Latin American and Caribbean region are highly favorable to furthering its trade and investment relations with China and the Asia-Pacific, a UN official said Friday.
“China has become a strategic trade partner for Latin America and the Caribbean, and there are many opportunities to achieve export and investment agreements in fields such as mining, engineering, agriculture, infrastructure, science and technology,” said Alicia Barcena, executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and Caribbean (ECLAC).
Barcena made the remarks while presenting a report titled “The People’s Republic of China and Latin America and the Caribbean: Towards a new phase in the economic and trade link” to mark Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping’s visit to the region.
The report says China is the main destination of Brazilian and Chilean exports and the second largest for Costa Rica, Cuba, Peru and Venezuela, but the region’s export basket to China remains centered on raw materials.
“It is possible and necessary to advance on trade diversification, the creation of a trade alliance between the Asia-Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean, and to increase investment between both parties and enhance cooperation in innovation, education, science and technology,” Barcena said.
Click here to read the full article direct from http://english.cri.cn
The author is deputy editor of China Daily US edition. He can be reached at chenweihua@chinadaily.com.cn
The Western media continually criticizes China’s role in Latin America as being “neocolonial” and claims it has an “insatiable demand for commodities”, so I was keen to observe the people’s attitude toward China during my trip to the region recently.
Judging from the enthusiasm for China displayed by government officials, businessmen, academics and ordinary people in Chile, the picture presented by the Western media has been seriously distorted.
At the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, chiefs and experts attributed the fast trade and investment growth from China as a key factor for Latin America not only surviving, but thriving during the global financial crisis.
The same message was heard from top Chilean officials at the 5th annual meeting of the Chile China Business Council, which drew some 500 government officials and business people.
It is true that commodities are an important part of the trade between China and Latin America. However, that trade benefits not only China, but also Latin America and the rest of the world.
By being the world’s manufacturing workshop, China has paid a high environmental cost. Just half a century ago, that job was done in most of today’s developed countries when they were the global manufacturing center.
Many developed countries have an insatiable demand for China’s rare earth and, of course, the country’s cheap labor. But this never seems to bother the Western media.
In fact, China and Latin America are quickly diversifying and elevating their trade and investment as witnessed by the host of agreements signed by China and Cuba, Uruguay and Chile in the past few days.
China has already become Chile’s largest trade partner. Chinese businesses are increasing their presence in the South America country. The billboards on Santiago streets by automaker BYD and appliance firm Haier, and the Chinese businessmen who do trade, operate malls and run convenience stores are proof of China’s presence.
Both countries share a priority in development. Chile aspires to become a developed country and China wants to become a xiaokang (well-off ) society.
Chilean President Sabastian Pinera made constant reminders that the two countries are very close despite the geographical distance between them.
The mood among the ordinary people I met in Chile was also favorable to China. I have never heard the word “Welcome” as often as I did in Chile. Ordinary Chileans I met in cafes, museums, parks in Santiago and Pablo Neruda’s colorful and hilly neighborhood in historic Valparaiso greeted me with “Welcome to Chile”.
What Pinera said was true. China and Chile are very close. In South America, Chile was the first country to recognize China’s market economy status, the first to sign a free trade agreement with China, the first to establish diplomatic ties with China and the first to support China’s WTO accession.
Of course, China and Latin American countries, all belong to the developing world and are going to compete with each other. But we all know that competition is a good thing and there is no need to distort the picture simply because of competition.
Latin American nations are independent countries and they are no one’s backyard. For China and Chile, they are really neighbor countries separated only by the Pacific. You can literally fly from Beijing to Santiago without passing over any other country.
Presidents Dilma Rousseff and Hu Jintao in China last month can celebrate rising two-way trade. (Photo: Roberto Stuckert Filho/PR)
China’s trade with Latin America is growing twice as fast as U.S. trade with the region.
BY RUTH MORRIS of the The Latin American Business Chronicle
SHANGHAI — China’s dragon breathed fire into Latin America in 2010, as trade between the two sides shot up by a spectacular 51.2 percent, to $178.6 billion, and memories of the economic recession melted away.
China’s trade with Latin America is growing at nearly twice the level of US trade with the region. It also is significantly higher than the 31 percent increase in trade between the European Union and Latin America last year.
Click here to read more direct from the Latin American Business Chronicle
What happens when a group of famous Peruvian actors, dancers, surfers, chefs, musicians, etc get together and board a bus… bound for Nebraska, Peru, US? Well… you get this: click here to watch video directly on youtube, or stream the video below
Lima, Apr. 24 (ANDINA). Peruvian President Alan Garcia and his counterparts from Colombia, Chile and Mexico will meet in Lima this week to sign an agreement aimed at deepening integration among the countries.
Garcia Perez will host Colombia’s Juan Manuel Santos, Chile’s Sebastian Piñera and Mexico’s Felipe Calderon on Thursday, April 28, in the Peruvian capital.
The pact seeks to create favorable conditions for the movement of capital, goods and services among the four signing countries.
President Felipe Calderon will pay a state visit on April 27, one day before the planned summit; while reports from Chile suggest that President Piñera will stay in Lima for “only a couple of hours.”
In Lima, President Garcia has hailed the agreement as a “clear and definitive victory” of a modern and open democracy.
Img: Courtesy of Wikicommons
Andina News Agency has just reported (technically announced) the 5th China-Latin American Business Summit will be held in Lima this year:
Lima, Mar. 30 (ANDINA). The Peruvian capital will host the 5th China-Latin American Business Summit to be held from November 21-22 this year at The Westin Libertador hotel, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) reported.
CCPIT Latin America and Oceania Department Director Lei Hong said that Peru was chosen as the venue because of the recent Free Trade Agreement (FTA) signed with China, which is why Peru’s Foreign Ministry is organizing the event.
According to her, some 300 entrepreneurs from the Asian giant attended the previous editions, and a similar amount is expected for this year’s summit.
In addition, an exhibition of products from China and other participating countries, as well as business roundtables and meetings among CEOs will also take place.
The previous business summits have been carried out in Santiago (Chile), Harbin (China), Bogota (Colombia), and Chengdu (China).
1. Peru’s Presidential Election: The risk of throwing it all away
Populists like Ollanta Humala (pictured below) threaten to overcome divided moderates in one of Latin America’s fastest-growing economies
LIVING in Peru’s capital is like watching a film on fast-forward. Every few months you can spot a taller skyscraper, a swankier hotel, glossier shops and restaurants, new roads—and more traffic. House prices in the leafier neighbourhoods have almost doubled in the past two years. Rapid change is not confined to Lima. The only provincial cities of any size that do not already boast one or more new shopping malls and multiplex cinemas are about to get them. These are the tangible results of a decade in which Peru’s GDP grew by over 5% a year, the highest rate among Latin America’s bigger economies.
Since 2006 the growth has accelerated, averaging 7% despite the world recession. Some good effects have been widespread. The share of Peruvians living in poverty fell from 49% in 2004 to 35% in 2009. Much of the Pacific coast, where farmers export asparagus, grapes and a plateful of other products, enjoys full employment. Though many parts of the Andean highlands remain poor, the arrival of paved roads is cutting journey times, and some farmers there have joined the export boom with artichokes and herbs. Social indicators have improved. Between 2005 and 2010 Peru climbed 24 places in the United Nations Human Development Report, which ranks countries by income, life expectancy and educational measures. It now scores better then Hugo Chávez’s Venezuela… click link above to continue reading the full article direct from the Economist
2. Kin selection — When family replaces party
KEIKO FUJIMORI’S unique selling point in Peru’s presidential election (see article) is her surname. In 1990, when she was 15, her father, Alberto Fujimori, won the presidency and stayed for ten years. Despite his many faults, Mr Fujimori, who is now in jail for corruption and human-rights abuses, retains the support of some Peruvians, who credit him with defeating the Maoist terrorists of the Shining Path. The family political brand helped Ms Fujimori get more votes than any other candidate for Peru’s Congress in 2006. Now she hopes it will take her to the presidency.
She is part of a growing Latin American trend for politics to become a family affair. In Argentina Cristina Fernández succeeded her husband, Néstor Kirchner, as president in 2007. Until his sudden death last October he had been expected to try to take back the presidential sash at an election this year. If Ms Fernández opts to run again, her son will be among her political advisers. Her opponents will probably include Ricardo Alfonsín, whose father was president in the 1980s… click link above to continue reading the full article direct from the Economist
