Regional Seminar Analysis of economic, trade and cooperation relations between LAC-Korea

The objective of this Regional Seminar is to analyze and promote the strengthening of economic and trade relations of Latin America and the Caribbean with the Republic of Korea, in order to conduct diagnoses, learn from experiences in public policies and explore different ways of mutual cooperation, as well as trade and investment.

The Permanent Secretariat of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic System (SELA), in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Peru and the University of the Pacific in Lima, is organizing the Regional Seminar “Analysis of economic, trade and cooperation relations of Latin America and the Caribbean with the Republic of Korea”, scheduled to take place on 09 and 10 May 2017 in Lima, Peru.

The objective of this Regional Seminar is to analyze and promote the strengthening of economic and trade relations of Latin America and the Caribbean with the Republic of Korea, in order to conduct diagnoses, learn from experiences in public policies and explore different ways of mutual cooperation, as well as trade and investment.

Relations between the region and the Asian country must be strengthened, based on the fact that Latin America and the Caribbean can learn from the experience of the Asian country to improve the design and implementation of public policies through the Knowledge Sharing Programme, or decentralize the region’s sources of investment, which so far come mainly from China.

SELA considers that it would be very positive to expand the transpacific relations of its Member States with the Republic of Korea by promoting the necessary mechanisms to go beyond their current status, which is framed only within the Memorandum of Understanding between the Latin American Economic System (SELA) and the Korean Council on Latin America and the Caribbean (KCLAC), of 1999. Within the framework of this spirit of renewal, SELA, with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Peru and the University of the Pacific in Lima, has organized this Regional Seminar: Analysis of economic, trade and cooperation relations of Latin America and the Caribbean with the Republic of Korea.

The topics that will be addressed during the development of the regional meeting are:

SESSION I: Analysis of the Economic, Commercial and Cooperation Relations of Latin America and Korea, which includes the presentation of the study prepared by SELA: "Analysis of the economic, commercial and cooperation relations of Latin America and the Caribbean with Korea".

SESSION II: Integration Mechanisms of Latin America and the Caribbean and Relations with Korea.

SESSION III: Importance of Cooperation in Economic Relations between Latin America and the Caribbean with Korea.

SESSION IV: National and Corporate Perspectives on Trade, Investment and Cooperation between Latin America and the Caribbean with Korea.

Trade relations between Latin America and the Caribbean with the Asia-Pacific region have been expanding gradually since the 1980s, reaching a value of US$ 54,200 million in 2014.

For its part, the value of trade of the Republic of Korea with the rest of the world exceeded US$ 500,000 in 2014 for both exports and imports (Korea International Trade Organization), and according to recent estimates, it is expected to reach US$ 2 trillion by 2020, demonstrating its future growth potential. However, for these improvements to be reflected also in Latin America and the Caribbean, trade relations between the two must be boosted, since they are still at modest levels and there are high degrees of concentration in terms of trade, in the exported-imported good ratio, the destination markets and the industries that manufacture such goods (ECLAC, 2015).

Cooperation for development of Korea with Latin America and the Caribbean has shown rising levels since 2000, totalling US$ 100 million in 2013 (ECLAC, 2015), with an emphasis on mitigating social inequalities, strengthening administrative capacities, improving transparency of governments, and promoting sustainable development in the region.

The Regional Seminar to be held in Lima, Peru, is aimed at government authorities responsible for international trade of the Member States of SELA, representatives of regional and international organizations, participants associated with the academic sector and experts in the field.