This book examines China's trade insertion strategy in Latin America. Divided into five parts, the book features scholars from China, Chile, Costa Rica, Peru, and Mexico who present the main actors and dynamics around China's trade policy in the region in twelve carefully selected contributions, with qualitative and quantitative case studies. Highlighting China's important trade presence in Latin America after joining the World Trade Organization (WTO), the book analyzes the effects of free trade agreements China signed with three countries in the region - Chile (2005), Peru (2010), and Costa Rica (2011) - as well as specific preferential agreements with other countries from Latin America. While the first part of this book reviews China and Latin America trade policies, the second part explores China's view of Latin America. In a third part of the book, the contributions provide a deeper look into the trade relations between China and the countries of Peru, Costa Rica, Mexico, and the United States. The fourth part of the volume focuses on the emerging trade agenda between the two regions. Finally, the fifth part of the book discusses the trade challenges between China and Latin American and Caribbean countries. The book will appeal to scholars of international relations, economics, and political science, as well as policy-makers interested in a Chinese and Latin American perspective on trade policy in general, and on China's trade policy in the region in particular.

World Bank Discussion Paper No. 350. This paper uses an econometric analysis model to examine the distribution across different socioeconomic groups of Malawi's public spending on education. The analysis shows the changes in distribution before and after the country adopted a series of education reforms in 1994.

The Uruguay Round trade negotiations marked a historic turning point in the reform of agricultural trade. The Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture (URAA) replaced nontariff barriers with bound tariffs, curbed export subsidies, and codified domestic agricultural programs. Unfortunately, the URAA bound many of the tariffs that replaced nontariff barriers too high, it legitimized export subsidies, and it left the domestic farm policies of the major industrial countries largely untouched. Fortunately, regional trade institutions have also begun to grapple with agricultural trade liberalization. Agriculture was featured in the Mercosur agreement, in recent agreements between the European Union and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, and in the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA). Plans for broad supraregional trade structures, such as the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum and the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), have also dealt with the inclusion of agricultural trade. Meanwhile, in developing and middle-income countries, unilateral agricultural policy reforms have been part of recent economic policy changes. However, in the industrial countries, agricultural policy reform has languished in the face of much domestic opposition. But the reform of the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in 1992 and the 1996 Farm Bill in the United States seems to have ushered in a new era of relations between government and agricultural groups. The author points out ways that multilateral, regional, and unilateral paths could be coordinated to liberalized agricultural trade. He proposes a set of multilateral talks that would benefit from agricultural reform at all levels and complete the job begun at the Uruguay Round.

This study analyzes the significance of new economic context in Latin America and the Caribbean for the design of policies for the agricultural sector. In addition, it analyzes and assesses recent trends in agricultural development policy in Latin America, to identify and synthesize new policy directions, and to highlight emerging challenges and avenues for policy innovation. The main conclusion of the study is that Latin American agricultural and rural development policy is at a turning point that will require bold new initiatives to improve the production performance of agriculture, reduce rural poverty, protect the natural resource base of the sector and ensure the political sustainability of economic growth. This will require a pro-active set of interventions designed at restoring the specificity of sectoral agricultural policy while maintaining consistency with the macro reforms.--Publisher's description.

If we must eat to survive, we must make agriculture sustainable. To make agriculture sustainable, we must consider the necessary strategic actions to understand the challenges in the sector, solve problems and innovate. That is why in July 2017, several Ministers and other senior representatives of the Ministries of Agriculture of Suriname, Guyana, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Belize, Barbados and The Bahamas participated in the Caribbean Agricultural Policy Forum organized by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The Forum analyzed the agricultural policy strategies of the different countries and their impact on the performance of the sector. It was an opportunity to discuss the challenges the Caribbean’s agricultural sector faces, including: the vulnerability of small producers to price volatility in the global market and of course the impacts of climate change. The dialogue was based on agricultural public policy data collected for each Caribbean country within the framework of the IDB’s Agrimonitor initiative. The following publication gathers the main findings and summarizes how agricultural policies affect producers and consumers as well as how the limited funding for agricultural services, such as research and infrastructure, could limit the ability of Caribbean farmers to compete effectively in global markets. The analyses presented are therefore meant to contribute to the Caribbean’s regional dialogue for the design of more effective agricultural policies, which we hope will strengthen the sector and improve the lives of people in the region.

"Chapter on Ecuador offers a comparison with other Andean Pact countries. Argues that Ecuador is most in need of stability and security offered by regional market access"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 57.