ABSTRACT
The Latin American business environment presents a contradiction of circumstances that can have an impact on investors’ decisions for business development in this region of the world. On the one hand there is the continuous unprecedented economic growth connected with many of the Latin American countries. On the other hand, the political and economic decision making among many Latin American countries continues to focus on many of the unproductive policies that created stagnation in the past. Be that as it may, Latin America has left behind the days when its comparative trade advantages rested solely in the agricultural sector. In fact, the region as a whole has moved past not only the agricultural but also the industrial state, to a regional economy more based on services than even industry. That said, the legacy of the import substitution methodology that the Latin American countries chose as an approach to industrialize still leaves a negative imprint on the “doing business climate” for foreign investors. Latin American businessmen are almost universally mercantilist. The foreign investor looking to do business in Latin America should make no mistake about it. The Latin American businessman, ever the advocate of free markets, is always and in every place looking to the state for protection from foreign competition at every turn.
