Pacific Alliance: Political, Economic, and Commercial Implications

This chapter discusses the creation of the Pacific Alliance comprising four countries: Mexico, Chile, Peru, and Colombia. It shows that is not only a free trade agreement between these countries but also a multidimensional regional integration with political, economic, and cultural perspectives. Programs and actions have been structured in a way that allows and promotes integral growth of Latin American citizens. For this reason, it is important to analyze in this chapter the opportunities that Alliance Pacific generates with respect to each of these three aspects. (1) Political and diplomatic implications like eliminating visa requirements for the members, sharing some embassies, facilitating labor mobility between these countries, and proposing the creation of a joint parliament. (2) Economic and trade implications with a gradual elimination of tariffs that will allow companies to be more competitive, creation of different government agencies in each country to support business and promote intra-regional trade of goods and services, and create a joint platform to promote innovation, entrepreneurship and gender equity. Finally, (3) Cultural and educational implications, as the creation of “Student and Academic Mobility Platform” of the Pacific Alliance with scholarships for students and researchers, the integration of a “Technical Education Group” to foster integration and social inclusion of children and adolescents, and the creation of “Sports Diplomacy Program” and a “Scientific Research Network on Climate Change.” Although there are still several challenges for improvement in the Pacific Alliance, it is an agreement that will bring stability, welfare, and development effects for the members of these countries.