Economic Evaluations and Support for Free Trade in Latin America and the Caribbean

Abstract

In recent decades, the Americas have seen the emergence of regional integration organizations with significant governance functions: for instance, the Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR), the Andean Community, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Central American Common Market (MCCA). All of these integration projects differ importantly in their political configurations; however, they also have important similarities. All of them, for example, are constituted by countries with strong pre-existent historical, political and commercial links, were advocated by elites in a top-down process, have been the object of recent intense political debate and have market integration at their core (Zürn et al. 2012).