ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the Latin American experience with the aim of extracting some lessons that might be relevant for East Asia, as it appears to move in the direction that Latin America has traditionally followed. Latin America arguably has the longest history of regional integration attempts of any part of the world. If East Asia is to follow a successful path based on government-led negotiations, it must do so with a much clearer vision than was found in Latin America. Helping smaller countries and smaller firms to survive and participate actively in regional integration schemes will be an important prerequisite for success in Asia. In particular, intra-regional trade in Latin America has tended to move in a pro-cyclical way, contrary to some early expectations of trade theorists and policy-makers. Intra-regional investment flows in Latin America and the Caribbean also lag behind those of other regions. Overall, intra-regional investment has made an important contribution to regional integration.
