The Pacific Alliance outperforms Brazil in economic and trade outlook.

BY JOACHIM BAMRUD

The Pacific Alliance outperforms Brazil – Latin America’s largest economy -- in estimated growth of GDP, inflation, exports and imports this year as well as combined GDP, FDI, trade and population size, according to a Latinvex analysis of data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The alliance includes Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.

"These four countries are individually very attractive, but combined they are really a magnet that attracts enormous attention from the international community," Colombian finance minister Mauricio Cardenas told CNN en Español  recently.

The group is seen as the most promising trade block in Latin America today. On February 10, the presidents of the Pacific Alliance members signed an agreement to eliminate 92 percent of the tariffs between them.

“Given that trade among the four countries is currently a mere 4 percent of their total trade, the potential to expand trade and investment flows is huge,” argues Moises Naim in an article in The Atlantic this week.  Naim is a senior associate in the International Economics Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a former Venezuelan trade minister.

With several other Latin American countries in line to join, the ...

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Keywords: Americas Market Intelligence, Argentina, Asia, Brazil, Chile, CIBC, Colombia, Costa Rica, FTAA, Mercosur, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela