Shortcomings of regional regulatory integration in Mercosur: the case of non-tariff barriers in the footwear sector

GIL, LUCIANA

Firenze

Conferencia; XII Annual Conference of the Euro-Latin Study Network on Integration and Trade; 2014

Instituto para la Integración de América Latina y el Caribe (Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo)

This article studies trade barriers in the footwear industry in a Latin American integration process: the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR). It considers that a solid analytical basis to assess the strength and weaknesses of regional strategies to reduce regulatory barriers to trade needs to be built upon the analysis of specific empirical cases that show themselves as microcosms of the wider trade universe and that make possible the study of all dimensions of barriers. The argument is based on the results of a research on industry-government relationships in Argentina as explanatory elements of the current shape of MERCOSUR. Considering business and governments as the main players in regional trade regulation, the article discusses the regulatory characteristics of trade barriers by confronting them to their distributive characteristics, evaluating their economic and political effects, both at domestic and regional level.