By Estrella Gutiérrez
CARACAS, Nov 18 1994 (IPS)

The fact that their continent is economically joined to Asia is a new realisation for the Latin American power centres, more familiar with ties to the United States and Europe.

At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference held in Bogor, Indonesia on Tuesday, Mexico and Chile – with 50 percent of its exports going to Asia – were the only Latin American states present, though Colombia and Peru are also attempting to forge links through the APEC linked Pacific Rim group.

Carlos Moneta, director of the Asia-Pacific International Relations Institute, said that Latin America must take notice of the increasingly powerful Asian-Pacific nations.

The region took 17 percent of world income in 1980, 23.7 in 1990, and a predicted 28 percent in the year 2000, surpassing the United States – with 27 percent – and on par with the European Union (EU).

By the 21st century, the Gross Domestic Product of the region will be 90 percent of the EU figure and 76 percent that of the North American Free Trade nations, Canada, Mexico and the United States, with 42 percent of income from intra-Asian trade and only 27 percent dependent on the United States.

Moneta said that future world economic policies will not be decided by the current triad of the United States, Japan and the EU, but by a “pentarchy,” including China, the four dragons (South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan) and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries (Brunei, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand).

Meanwhile, while the United States has suggested free trade agreements such as Mercosur (between Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) and Nafta, the Asian criterion is “open regionalism” allowing for great flexibility and freedom of action.

While Asia is generally seen as “strange and unknown” by Latin America, statistics from the Economic Commission for Latin America (CEPAL) show that trade with Asia has recently been far more dynamic than that with the United States or the EU.

The Latin American Integration Association (ALADI), comprised of ten South American Nations and Mexico, exported 5.5 billion dollars worth of goods to the 12 Southeast Asian states in 1980 and 12.5 billion in 1990, while imports increased from 7.7 to 8.5 billion in the same period, and have continued rising since.

Latin American exports of manufactured goods to Asia has increased 20 times more to Asia than to the EU.

An IPS survey of the region shows several countries forging links with Asia.

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