The administration of President Barack Obama and US media have made much ado about the US “pivot” to Asia. What has largely escaped their attention, however, is that China has been lining up economic allies in the erstwhile “backyard” of the US.
Well, just as serious competition ought to awaken one’s creative juices in business, it is time for the US to step up a suitable economic policy for Latin America before it is too late. The difference in approaches by the US and China were brought into focus last week when US Vice-President Joseph Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping made tours of Latin America.
The US’s principal offer to its Latin American neighbours is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which offers Latin American and Asian nations access to the US market on the basis of three conditions: they must deregulate their financial markets, adopt intellectual property provisions that give preference to US firms, and allow private US firms to directly sue governments of countries that sign up to the TPP for violating any of its conditions.
Talk about a heavily conditioned offering. So what is the Chinese approach? On his visit to the region, China’s president offered more than $5.3 billion (R53bn) in financing, with few conditions attached, to its new-found Latin American friends. READ MORE
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I would argue that in comparison with our countries, the U.S. gives less than deserving attention to Latin America, unknowingly giving up in the opportunity to create an economic blog of over 1B habitants in the Americas as an emerging market to match that of China and India.