World Geography: Economic Factors, Climate Change, & Multiculturalism

World Geography
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World Geography
Part A
Latin America’s export dependence begun after its integration in the global economy in the late 19th century. The region’s integration into the international economy expanded the export market for Latin American countries who begun specializing in the export of raw materials and other primary commodities to the developed countries CITATION Ind95 \l 1033 (Indart, 1995). Latin American countries adopted export-dependent model to fuel its economic growth ambitions, while depending on imports to meet the local demand for manufactured goods. The Great Depression in the 1930s led to a decrease in the external demand for Latin America’s primary commodities, forcing a change in the economic development approach CITATION Ind95 \l 1033 (Indart, 1995).
The failure of export dependence across Latin America meant the onset of import substitution towards protecting its economy from the uncertainties of foreign markets and the international economy as a whole. The import substitution economic model entailed embracing protectionist policies to safeguard the growth and incubation of their local industries, having adopted industrialization to bridge the existing structural differences with their developed trading partners CITATION Ind95 \l 1033 (Indart, 1995). The structural differences led to a decline in the terms of trade for primary commodities being exported to the developed countries. The protectionist policies embraced by Latin American governments included imposing tariffs on imports while offering subsidies to their local industries to make the locally manufactured goods more competitive with imports from the developed countries CITATION Ind95 \l 1033 (Indart, 1995). The import substitution led to steady growth of Latin American economies in the 1950s and stagnating in the 1960s.
The import substitution economic model thrived on industrialization campaign across the Latin American countries that was financed by heavy borrowing from the 1960s to 1970s. Latin American countries incurred a debt of over $300 billion during the industrialization campaign by the 1980s CITATION Ind95 \l 1033 (Indart, 1995). External factors such as increase in oil prices and interest rates in the Western countries led to default in payment of the huge debts incurred by the Latin American countries in what is referred to as the Latin American Debt Crisis.
Efforts to overcome the adverse effects of the debt crisis on their economies included privatization and a shift from import substitution to export-dependent model. The need for trade liberalization that characterized the region as early as the 1960s with the formation of LATIN American Free Trade Association (LAFTA) and subsequent regional trade agreements intensified after the debt crisis CITATION Ind95 \l 1033 (Indart, 1995). The 1990s witnessed the formation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that opened up the region to transnational corporations due to the removal of barriers and increased market for locally manufactured goods across Latin America.
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