• Analysis and Studies
• LAIA

The LAIA  (Latin American Integration Association) is an international and regional scope organization. It was founded on 12 August 1980 by the 1980 Montevideo Treaty, replacing the Latin American Free Trade Association (LAFT).

Now it has 13 member countries and any of the Latin American States may apply for accession. (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela).

Functions

• Promotion and regulation of reciprocal trade
• Economic complementation
• Development of economic cooperation actions contributing to the markets extension

General principles

• Pluralism in political and economic matters
• Progressive convergence of partial actions for the establishment of a Latin American Common Market
• Flexibility
• Differential treatments based on the development level of the member countries
• Multiple forms of trade agreements

What about integration mechanisms, the Latin American Integration Association promotes the establishment of an area of economic preferences within the region, in order to create a Latin-American common market, through three mechanisms:

• A Regional Tariff Preference applied to goods from the member countries compared to tariffs-in-force for third countries
• Regional Scope Agreements, those in which all member countries participate
• Partial Scope Agreements, those wherein two or more countries of the area participate.

What is the institutional structure?

• Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs (represents the supreme body political management of LAIA and provide to make decisions for political management of the integration process.
• Committee of Representatives (it’s the Permanent Body Political Direction, where all the initiatives of the objectives are analyzed and agreed on; it meets every fifteen days and its resolutions are adopted by the affirmative vote of 2/3 of the member countries)
• General Secretariat (It’s the Technical Body Proposals, Evaluation & Management of LAIA and it may propose, evaluate study the objectives of LAIA).
• Evaluation & Convergence Conference (evaluates the progress of the process. Recommends multilateral corrective measures)

LAIA (Latin American Integration Association) is a Trade Bloc composed by Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Cuba. In 2019, LAIA exported $1.09T (5.18% of global exports) and imported $1.01T (4.79% of global imports).

Mexico is the largest exporter, it exported $474B, which corresponds to 43.4% of the total exports. On the other hand, the largest importer, Mexico, imported $459B, which is 45.5% of the total imports of Latin American Integration Association.

Trade 

In 2021, LAIA's most exported products were Petroleum oils, oils from bituminous minerals, crude ($71.3B), Copper ores and concentrates ($52.9B), Iron ore, concentrate, not iron pyrites, unagglomerate ($46.8B), Soya beans ($45B), and Medium Sized Cars ($25.6B). The same year, the most imported products were Oils petroleum, bituminous, distillates, except crude ($60.7B), Transmit-receive apparatus for radio, TV, etc. ($25.1B), Parts and accessories of data processing equipment ne ($23.5B), Monolithic integrated circuits, digital ($22.8B), and Natural gas in gaseous state ($13.4B).

 In 2021, LAIA's exports went firstly to United States ($438B), China ($171B), Brazil ($29.9B), Canada ($28.4B), and South Korea ($22.9B).

The same year, LAIA's imported primarily from United States ($342B), China ($223B), Brazil ($40.1B), Germany ($38.6B), and South Korea ($23.1B).

Fonti: 

 https://oec.world/en 

https://data.worldbank.org/

https://www.trademap.org/