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OAS Secretary General Discussed Prospects for Renewal of Transatlantic Relations

The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, delivered today at the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE) in Mexico a lecture titled "America in the Atlantic Space," in which he explained his views on how to develop future transatlantic relations based on the concept of "Atlantic Space," which includes as key players Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa, and not just the traditional North America - Europe axis.

The event was organized by the Division of International Studies of CIDE and the United States Studies Program of the research center along with the “Atlantic Future” project, a collaborative research program funded by the European Commission that aims to study the rationales of cooperation in the Atlantic area and to suggest strategies to the EU on how to strengthen the transatlantic relationship in the context of the ongoing redistribution of power and overall global rebalancing.

In his presentation, Secretary General Insulza analyzed the economic and social elements that can contribute to the development of the Atlantic space, the existing forms of cooperation to address economic, environmental and security challenges, and how they must adapted to the institutional framework for regional integration and transatlantic relations to shape this renewed space for cooperation.

The OAS leader said, from his perspective, "it's time to pay attention with an analytical, long-term view, to the new dynamics of transatlantic relations, which have been impacted by such profound changes as the emergence of new poles of power, with a strong presence of China in our region." He stressed the influence of these relations on the existence of an increasingly dynamic Pacific axis, the rise of emerging economies, and the transformation of geography and governance of production and commerce worldwide. He also added that the impact of the mega blocs that have arisen from agreements between trading partners should be taken into accoutn, such as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the free trade initiative within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). These blocs, he summarized, "not only integrate wider economic spaces, but do so at a level of increasing depth. In this context we must position ourselves to evaluate new partnerships in trade to be built taking into account the network of agreements linking countries on both sides of the Atlantic."

During the event, held at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico, the leader of the hemispheric institution indicated that trade in Latin America is "characterized by excessive dependence on exports of raw materials, to the detriment of their participation in the global value chains." He further examined the challenges facing Latin America in its integration into the world economy and its relations with the "mega blocs," and shared the picture of the economic situation of the region. "There is no doubt that over the last decade Latin America is one of the economic successes in the world; the region enjoyed a combination of high growth, macroeconomic stability, poverty reduction and improvement in income distribution," he said, citing ECLAC figures that indicate that over the past 10 years more than 50 million people in Latin America have escaped poverty, which means that poverty in the region was reduced from 43.9% in 2002 to 28.8% in 2012. "Despite these achievements, the region remains the most unequal in the world, therefore, one of the main challenges we still face is to reduce high levels of inequality in income distribution," he said.

Secretary General Insulza emphasized the importance of considering climate change as a key factor in the economic development of the region. "You can not talk about competitiveness and deepening of transatlantic trade without addressing this issue, which could have crippling effects not only on trade and food security, but also on long-term development." He said that although most of the Latin American and Caribbean countries are not major contributors to the problem of climate change itself, they will be the most affected, and mentioned the case of the Caribbean islands, where it is estimated that the damage caused by the phenomenon can reach 22 billion dollars per year in 2050 and 46 billion per year in 2100. On this point, the Secretary General urged progress on the creation of a Transatlantic Partnership on Climate Change and Sustainable Development that includes "a window to provide sufficient resources to build strong and lasting synergies between climate change adaptation and trade development."

The OAS Secretary General also stressed the need to understand and expand the dynamics of South-South relationships between Latin American and African countries. "I believe this is a very important area due to the emerging relevance that Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean are acquiring in the world stage," he said, recalling that "the economic future of the world is increasingly dependent on what happens in the South, the developing world contributes more than 50% of global economic growth and 40% of global investment, and their contribution to overall investment growth is more than 70 percent."

At the end of his presentation, the head of the hemispheric Organization referred to the issue of institutionalization, "that underpins our cooperative relations," noting that there are regional organizations and communities that contribute to the development of their member nations. "In the case of our transatlantic relations, entities such as the Ibero-American Summit and the CELAC-UE have offered very important opportunities to strengthen cooperation between our regions," he recalled. In conclusion, Insulza noted the lack of a mechanism for Pan-Atlantic cooperation similar to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and suggested consideration of whether " it is the time to accompany this renewed Atlantic Space with an institutional framework that supports a dynamic cooperation between our continents."

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-057/14