Regional Integration in Northerm South Africa

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Please see response attached for best formatting (also below), including three supporting articles. I hope this helps and take care.

RESPONSE:

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1. I need to analyze the regional integration in promoting global business in Northern South America. Also, discuss the advantages and disadvantages of regional integration (NAFTA, EU, APEC, ASEAN, CAFTA)

Note: Columbia and Venezuela are the only two countries that are labeled as Northern South America region; however, I also added the regions referred to as Northwestern South America (Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana) just in case you also have to include them in your analysis. So, please keep what fits.

? Northern South America is a region in the continent South America. This region has a rich range of natural resources exploited to European explorers over the past couple of centuries. Most of the most populous cities, such as Bogotá, are located temperate conditions of the Andes. Other major cities are often located on the coast of either the three main waterways bordering the region- the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. The two Andean States of Colombia and Venezuela are located in the northwestern part of the continent. They both are Caribbean-bordering countries. Two independent states and a dependent state are located in the Guiana Highlands. Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana, respectively are located on the Atlantic Ocean. http://www.answers.com/topic/northern-south-america

See file saved "Latin America.pdf" - also available on-line at http://www.rieb.kobe-u.ac.jp/academic/ra/dp/English/dp121.pdf, which discusses the regional integration in full, including northern South American states. Also see file "South America which also includes Columbia and Venezuela in the analysis.

In the 1990s formal integration have been flourishing in various ways in the Western hemisphere. Latin American countries have strengthened their relations by revitalizing their existing sub-regional schemes or launching new important initiatives. In addition to regional integration schemes or multi-countries FTAs (free trade agreements), such as NAFTA, MERCOSUR and FTAA, various bi-lateral FTAs have emerged amongst Latin American countries and between then and extra-regional countries in the second half of the 1990s (p. 2). In 1994, US effectuated NAFTA with Canada and Mexico, and showed an interest in liberalization of APEC in Seattle in 1994. Then came the Free Trade Area of the America (FTAA), which contains all countries in North and South America, except Cuba. Venezuela formed OPEC in 1994.

-Advantage: Intra-regional trade increased from 11.9% (1985) to 15.2% (1990s) to 25.6% (1994) to 31.8% (1998), which impacted further regional integration (p. 4 chart e.g., Latin America).

-Regional integration: Venezuela and Columbia signed ECA with Chile in 1993 (p. 4) and increased intra and inter-regional trade.

-Advantage: Increase intra and inter regional trade through regional integration (intra- and inter-regional integration) see the three phases beginning in the early 1990s (p. 7), which also impacts globalization through increased regional trade and cooperation.

-It also discusses other advantages and disadvantages of regional integration (NAFTA, EU, APEC, ASEAN, CAFTA) and has very useful tables and figures at the end of the article that you can use as part of this analysis.

-Colombia joined the Andean Group, an economic organization of South American nations, in 1969, and has signed free-trade pacts with other Andean countries and Mexico. During the early 1990s the economy was growing quickly in comparison with that of other Latin American countries, and inflation and unemployment were under control. However, government spending and foreign debt soared in the late 1990s, the country suffered its worst recession in a century, and labor unrest and internal problems related to the drug trade continued to threaten the country's economic stability (excerpted from http://www.answers.com/topic/colombia?method=22).

Venezuela:

International Groups: (note: none of the ones you listed (NAFTA, EU, APEC, ASEAN, CAFTA) are listed for these countries, but indirectly, with the regional integration, NAFTA and the others might effect the global expansion.
International organization participation: CAN, CDB, CSN, FAO, G-3, G-15, G-24, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU, LAES, LAIA, Mercosur (associate), MIGA, NAM, OAS, OPANAL, OPCW, OPEC, PCA, RG, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

See more information for Venezuela in reference (3) below and the attached article "Trade Integration.doc" which lists all the trade agreements that might impact Northern South America region in South America.

Guyana:

International Groups:

International organization participation: ACP, C, Caricom, CDB, CSN, FAO, G-77, IADB, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, ISO (subscriber), ITU, LAES, MIGA, NAM, OAS, OIC, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

See more information for Guyana in reference (4) below.

4. Seriname (Formerly Dutch Guiana)

A country of northeast South America on the Atlantic Ocean. First colonized by the British, the region was ceded to the Dutch in 1667 and became an autonomous territory of the Netherlands in 1954. Full independence was achieved in 1975. Paramaribo is the capital and the largest city. Population: 436,000.
See http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?method=4&dsid=2222&dekey=Suriname&curtab=2222_1 for more information on Suriname.

5. French Guiana

A French overseas department of northeast South America on the Atlantic Ocean. Settlement by the French began in 1604, but the area was largely ignored until penal colonies (now closed) were established in the 19th century. Cayenne is the capital and the largest city. Population: 191,000.

See http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?method=4&dsid=2222&dekey=French+Guiana&curtab=2222_1 for more information on French Guiana.

Example 1: ARTICLE

THE PRIVATE SECTOR OF THE WIDER CARIBBEAN
IN THE CONTEXT OF GLOBALISATION
Professor Norman Girvan
First Business Forum of the Caribbean
Porlamar, Margarita Island, Venezuela: 19-20 October 2000

INTRODUCTION

First, let me thank the people and Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela for their generosity in hosting this First Business Forum of the Caribbean. I also wish to thank the people of the State of Nueva Esparta for their kind hospitality.

This is an historic meeting, the first of its kind. It takes place at a time of great challenges - and great opportunities.

GLOBAL AND HEMISPHERIC CONTEXT
In the Global Economy, there have been major changes occurring over the last 10-20 years. Services, technological information and capital flows have grown rapidly in importance. There is a marked tendency towards the homogenisation of tastes and worldwide trade liberalization. Traditional resource-based industries are losing their importance; new knowledge-based industries are taking their place.

In this hemisphere, negotiations are under way for the creation of a Free Trade Area of the Americas. The Exclusion of Cuba from these negotiations is an anacronism which, we must all hope, will soon be rectified.

These changes have posed new challenges to the competitive capacity of companies and to the coping capabilities of governments, especially those of developing countries, not least in our region of the Greater Caribbean.
We exist of course in the wider Latin American context, a market which it has been estimated, based on trade volume, will be at least equal if not greater than the markets of Japan and Europe combined.

Already, MERCOSUR is the world's third largest trading block, and MERCOSUR is set to become consolidated as a rival pole for expansion in the hemisphere in relation to NAFTA. In August, the South American Economic Summit launched a plan, spearheaded by Brazil, to forge an economic union of South America.

The Andean Community has established as a priority, the co-ordination of the group's external economic relations.

For its part, Mexico has been very proactive in seeking to achieve trade liberalisation in the hemisphere. It has initiated bilateral free trade negotiations with Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay; it hopes to conclude a wide-ranging agreement with MERCOSUR; it has free trade agreements with most of Central America, and expects that its free trade agreement with the USA will come into effect by the end of this year.

Notwithstaning the FTAA negotiations, it is very possible that we are witnessing the emergence in the hemisphere of two expansive trade blocks - a NAFTA area, headed by the US/México to the north, and a MERCOSUR area, led by Brazil/Argentina to the south.

THE GREATER CARIBBEAN
The countries of the Caribbean Basin?The Greater Caribbean?are strategically located in North South America, between these two large dynamic poles. The challenge for the business community, may I respectfully suggest, is to turn this strategic location into strategic advantage.

Governmments - and Inter-Govermental Organizations like the ACS - can, and should, provide the framework and the infrastructure, with sound macroeconomic policies and efficient public services. But at the end of the day, it is the Private Sector that must engage in the investment and trade that results in weatlh creation.
That is why the ACS has enthusiastically supported this Business Forum, as a means by which the Business Community of the Greater Caribbean can network across language barriers and trade barriers, can develop a consciousness of its own potential, and can let its voice be heard at the highest levels of policy making.
Let us not under-estimate our potential. In the Greater Caribbean, the 25 Independent States of the ACS have a population of 228 million, a GDP of $752 Billion, and Foreign Trade of $386 Billion. This is nearly one-half of the population and the GDP of the whole of Latin America and the Caribbean, and nearly two-thirds of the Region's Foreign Trade.

We need to think strategically, of the ACS as an economic space in the making. In recent years, Intra-ACS Trade has averaged $26 Billion a year. This might look large, but it is only 8 percent of the foreign Trade of ACS Countries.

Intra-ACS Trade grew by 80% between the first triennium of the 1990s and the last. But this was less than the percentage growth in the total trade of ACS countries.

In fact, one-half of Intra-ACS Trade is trade within existing integration schemes of ACS countries - within CARICOM, within the Central American Common Market, and within the Group of Three.
Let us look at the situation of these different groupings:

? CARICOM's Trade with ACS Countries is now ...