REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
Abstract
The paper focuses on the history of the regional integration processes development in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The publication highlights the impact of the U.S. on the development of this region: it touches upon the Monroe Doctrine; reveals the goals, the principles, the budget of the Organization of American States (OAS), as well as the context of the formation of the Latin American Free Trade Association (LAFTA), which had been created to ensure the economic independence of the LAC countries through the development of intra-regional trade and industry. The author demonstrates that the idea of the LAFTA formation originated in the 1950s, similar to the concepts that led to the establishment of the European Economic Community, the European Free Trade Association, the Central American Common Market. The LAFTA treaty was signed on February 18, 1960 by Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Chile. Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, olivia joined a bit later. The LAFTA was transformed into the Latin American Integration Association (LAIA) under the Treaty of Montevideo, which entered into force in 1981. The members of the LAIA are Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Thanks to the LAIA, the MERCOSUR and the Andean Community of Nations were initiated. The second integration bloc, formed in the interests of the countries of the region, the Central American Common Market (CACM), was launched by the Republic of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua. The CACM Treaty was signed in December 1960 in Managua. The CACM was joined by Costa Rica in 1962, by Panama in 2002. The article offers the dynamics of the share of the GDP of the LAC states in the world, as well as the dynamics of the nominal GDP of Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico as the key economies of the region. In 2023, Brazil ranked ninth in the world in terms of the nominal GDP: according to the IMF - USD 2’173.67 bln, while in terms of GDP based on PPP, it ranked seventh with the indicator of 2.419% of the world GDP based on PPP. Brazil is the engine of the region.
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