9 LATIN NATIONS MOVING TOWARD A COMMON MART

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP73-00475R000301380001-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 23, 2014
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: September 6, 1964
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2014/01/23: CIA-RDP73-00475R000301380001-2
SEP 6 1964
9 tin
ovi
a Co m
N tions
To rd
Trade Jumps 44%
, as Group Cuts
Tariffs
BY ISAAC A. LEVI
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay,
,Sept. 5 (R) ?.Nine Latin Ameri-
can nations have taken giant
steps toward a common mar-
ket for 300 million Latin
Americans by 1973.
They are Argentina, Brazil,
.Chile, Colombia, Ecuador,
Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and
Uruguay ? all members of the
Latin Arnerlean,Free Trade
. association.
? Set up in February, 1960, but,
not' functioning until the end of ;
1961 L. A. F. T. A. still ?is a I
long way from a trade zone like
?the European Common Market.
. Yet it has produced some re-
sults in two and a half years.
Many ;Tariffs Reduced
The nine countries?soon to
be joined by a once doubtful
Venezuela ? have already
slashed tariffs on 8,247 prod-
ucts ? from cocoa to shoes,
electric shavers, and locomo-
tives.
Trade among the nine
jumped 44.3 per cent ? from!
659 million dollars in. 1961 to
.951 million in 1963. And even
more encourating, L.A.F.T.A.
'experts think, is that Latin
America shows signs of begin-
ning to rook inward for un-
tapped resources.
? Regional commerce, used to
account for only 6 per cent of
rt
-7--".UNITED STATES
'CUBA
".1?7 ?
VENEZUELA
MEXICO
COLOMBIA''
1;4711L/V
ECUADOR
PERUj
BOLIVIA Vo/
'PARAGUA2:,
Pdgfainc oHILE
WHERE
COMMON
MARKET IS
PLANNED Ocean,
U -IUGUAY
.ARGENTINA
Atlantic;
Seek to Unite Industry
Governments keep in constant
touch thru L.A.F.T.A. head-
quarters in Montevideo, seek-
ing ways of welding together
budding industries in each
other's countries.
Industrialists show a few
?signs of becoming "buy Latin
American" conscious. ?
For L.A.F.T.A. to survive, its
members must achieve t w o
things: set up a common mar-
ket by scrapping all their re-
gional tariffs and trade barri-
ers by 1973, and speed up Latin
America's_ industrialization by
coordinating plans and individ-
ual industries.
New Jobs to Be Needed
Dr. Raul Prebisch, 62-year-
old Argentine formulator of
L.A.F.T.A., believes that if
these goals are reached Latin
America-will be ready to serve
a 300 million population pre-
dicted for 1975. By then, Latin
America, will neeed 38 million
new jobs and only, rapid in-
dustrialization can create them,
overall trade of the L.A.F.T.A. Prebisch says.
countries..Last year it was
Ultimately, L.A.F.T.A.. hopes
up
to 8.4 per cent. It may hit 10
to link with the so-far success-
per cent by next year.
ful Central American common
? imarket_of Guatemala, Hondu-
ras, El Salvador, Nicaragua,
and Costa Rica.
I L.A.F.T.A2s success up to
now has been liblited to bilater-
al negotiations. The L.A.F.T.A.
!treaty requires each member
I nation every year to scrap
I tariffs on 8 per cent of the value
I.of products it imports from
;within the area.
Open Markets to All
; When two L.A.F.T.A. coun-
tries agree to reduce tariffs on
products they . buy from each
other, they automatically open
their markets for the 'same
products produced by other na-
tions.
, That is a first, step, however.'
It is also a temporary one.
Any country can reimpose tar-
iffs if industrialists put up too
!much opposition at home.
,L.A.F.T.A.'s first crucial test ;
,comes at the end of this year ;
!I when all nations must agree, to
. .
' put , products making up one-
fourth of the value they trade
on a permanent "common"
list.
Once a product is on that
list, each of the nine nations
is forced to slash tariffs on it.
These reductions, once made,
cannot be changed.
Dibaring to Sone
That means Argenti:.,e-made
Fiat cars must eventually com-
pete with Brazilian Volkswagens
in Colombia and Peru, as well
as in Argentina and Brazil. The
, thought horrifies some Argen-
tine auto makers.
It also means five L.A.F.T.A.
nations must expose their high-
ly protected farmers and cattle
ranchers to the danger of being
undercut in their own market
places by wheat and beef from
Argentina and Uruguay.
Latin American industrialists
and farmers are not accus-
tomed to that kind of competi-
, tion.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2014/01/23: CIA-RDP73-00475R000301380001-2