Miami -- The nations of Latin America and
the Caribbean are falling dangerously behind in global economic
competition, which has negative implications for both that
region and the United States, says an official with the
U.S. Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration.
Walter M. Bastian, the Commerce Department’s
deputy assistant secretary for the Western Hemisphere, said
in a December 4 interview with USINFO that enhancing competitiveness
in Latin America and the Caribbean extends to such issues
as offering better educational opportunities for its citizens.
Bastian quoted studies that show the lack of private sector-funded
university research and government-funded universities,
which are “things which have really benefited the
United States” but are still “foreign”
in the Latin America/Caribbean region. Only one university
-- in Mexico -- in all of Latin America and the Caribbean
is on annual listings of the world's top 200 universities,
he said.
“Almost anything can make you more
competitive,” Bastian said. “Providing better
education, power generation, communications, and better
roads and infrastructure” are all ways to help a region
compete in the global economy, he said.
Bastian gave the interview as he participated
in a daylong “Competitiveness” forum at the
30th annual Miami Conference on the Caribbean Basin, held
in Miami December 4-6. Results of the Miami competitiveness
forum will be presented to delegates attending the May 31-June
2, 2007, meeting of the General Assembly of the Organization
of American States.
Bastian said the issue will receive further
attention in Atlanta June 11-13, where U.S. Commerce Secretary
Carlos Gutierrez will host the “Western Hemisphere
Competitiveness Forum” focusing on innovation and
the importance of managing the “supply chain”
to get a product “in and out of a country.”
Gutierrez will invite his counterparts from the Western
Hemisphere to the Atlanta conference, along with senior
officials from the region’s private sector.
The conference is an outgrowth of the November
2005 Summit of the Americas, held in Mar del Plata, Argentina.
President Bush and the 33 other democratically-elected heads
of state in the Americas participated in that Argentine
summit.
Bastian emphasized that Latin America and
the Caribbean need to improve the time it takes to move
a product from the supplier to the consumer. He cited the
example of how the UPS and FedEx corporations are able to
get a package moved off a cargo plane, and through U.S.
customs and agricultural and security inspectors, ”all
in a matter of 13 minutes.” In Latin America and the
Caribbean “it may take you literally months to get
a product loaded on a ship and [get it] out of the port,”
Bastian said.
”You can’t compete that way,”
Bastian said. "We’re trying to expose people
[to] more efficient ways of doing business.”
He said that “if we have a more economically
viable, competitive Latin America/Caribbean, it’s
good for U.S. and hemispheric security,” because people
in such countries as El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala,
Ecuador and Bolivia “will want to stay home …
and have the opportunity to succeed in their country of
birth.”
Sponsors of the Miami conference, subtitled
“A United Third Border,” said recent reports
from the World Bank and the World Economic Forum characterize
the Latin America/Caribbean region as “stagnant, lagging
behind the growth and productivity of other emerging markets.”
Those reports indicated that even the adoption of preferential
trade benefits for Latin America and the Caribbean “have
not served as the catalyst for long-awaited gains”
in the region.
For more information on U.S. policies, see
The
Caribbean.
The full
text of a press release announcing the Atlanta competitiveness
forum is available on the Department of Trade Web page.
For more information on the conference, contact:
Alysia Wilson
Director of Programs
Office of the Western Hemisphere
Market Access and Compliance
International Trade Administration
U.S. Department of Commerce
Alysia_Wilson@ita.doc.gov
(202) 482-5327 (office)
Eric Green
USINFO Staff Writer
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