Call for Papers on Trade Relations between Latin America and Asia-Pacific

The Asia-Pacific region has been the setting for major changes in economic integration over the past 20 years.  This applies to the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), as well as the entry into force over the next few years of the free trade agreement between China, Japan and South Korea (with negotiations beginning this year).

The most recent decade has also seen an increase in economic and trade relations between Latin America and Asia-Pacific, not only in terms of the sums involved but also with a major rise in trade agreements between countries of the two regions.   However, such links have asymmetries that are a particular cause for concern for Latin American countries.

In this context, the Latin America - Asia-Pacific Observatory, which is a joint initiative between the Latin American Integration Association (ALADI), CAF-Latin American Development Bank and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), aims to examine the experiences of Asia-Pacific in terms of economic integration in order to identify successful practices that can be duly adapted and then replicated in the Latin American context.

As part of the mechanisms to promote such knowledge, the Observatory is calling on experts to send in papers on the prospects for economic integration processes in Asia-Pacific, or on the study of trade relations between that region and Latin America, as part of the academic seminar Trade relations between Latin America and Asia-Pacific: challenges and opportunities, which will be held on 21 August 2013 in Santiago, Chile.

The articles should focus on some of the following topics:

• The contribution of formal economy integration processes to the development of Asian value chains.
• The role of ASEAN as the integration hub in Asia.
• ASEAN trade policy instruments: Possible lessons for Latin America?
• Trade relations between countries of Asia-Pacific and Latin American (both the quantitative and institutional dimension).
• Trans-Pacific cooperation initiatives.
• Trans-Pacific Foreign Direct Investment.
• Regional and bi-regional value chains in Asia and Latin America.

Potential contributors should e-mail their documents in Word or PDF format (observatorioaladi.org) by 19 July 2013.  They should be no longer than 10,000 words in Spanish, English or Portuguese, and should be accompanied by a brief CV of the author(s).

The articles will be selected by an assessment committee, based on innovation, relevance and applicability to the suggested topics. The results will be announced by 31 July, and the deadline for final versions will be 9 August.

The seminar will also include an academic forum for participants interested in taking part, aimed at maintaining up-to-date monitoring of relations between Asia-Pacific and Latin America, including an in-depth analysis of experiences and the identification of best practices for integration.

This forum will be able to make proposals that can then be forwarded to governments and other actors that influence economic and trade integration processes in the region.