SELA MEETING TO ANALYZE LAC-US ECONOMIC RELATIONS

Caracas, October 18- The economic relations between Latin America and the Caribbean and the United States of America will be the central topic of a meeting being organized by the Latin American and Caribbean Economic System (SELA), that is taking place in Caracas today.

The meeting will be opened by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Belize and Chairman of the Latin American Council of SELA, Wilfred Elrington, and the Permanent Secretary of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic System, Ambassador Roberto Guarnieri.

The first session will focus on the topic “Status and prospects of the economic relations between the United States and Latin America and the Caribbean”. The Permanent Secretariat of SELA will submit its base document, entitled “Recent evolution of bilateral relations between Latin America and the Caribbean and the United States”, and then there will be presentations on the views of the Member States of SELA.

The meeting will also discuss the economic dynamics and trade policy of the United States within the framework of the post-crisis global economic situation and its impact on Latin America and the Caribbean. Current trends characterizing economic, trade and cooperation relations between the United States and Latin America and the Caribbean will also be identified.

The meeting will serve to foster an exchange of ideas and proposals among representatives of the Member States, in order to assess future prospects and possible implications for the reciprocal economic relations within the framework of the global economic post-crisis period.

As set forth in the Panama Convention establishing SELA, the organization was created as a permanent regional body for consultation, coordination, cooperation and joint economic and social promotion, with its own international juridical personality. It is composed of sovereign Latin American and Caribbean States.

As a whole, Latin America and the Caribbean is made up of subregions that are inter-related through integration and cooperation mechanisms that generate economic and trade interdependencies, which in turn contribute, progressively, to an integration process with a continental scope that may contribute to social well-being and poverty reduction.

For the Member States of SELA, our region’s economic relations with the United States have been one of the traditional subjects of study and continuous analysis within the area of external relations. In this connection, in March 2010, SELA held the “Regional Seminar on Trade Relations between the United States and Latin America and the Caribbean in the first year of the Obama Administration”.

In March 2011, the Regional Seminar “Economic Relations between the United States and the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean in the first two years of the Obama Administration. Assessment and Prospects” took place in Caracas.

The conclusions and recommendations agreed to by the Member States during both seminars reiterated the need for SELA to continue analyzing the economic relations between the U.S. and Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as the economic policy measures adopted by the U.S. government to cope with the global crisis and its possible effects on the region.

In March 2012, SELA submitted the document “U.S. economic relations with Latin American and Caribbean countries in a time of transition”, which analyzes the region’s economic relations with the United States since its economic recovery, highlighting the recent evolution of trade and its political context.

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