The two books under review consist of articles by Latin American officials of various inter-American institutions, with only one exception, a Swiss. The other writers include such well-known figures as Felipe Herrera, President of the Interamerican Development Bank, Sanz de Santamaría, President of CIAP (the Interamerican Committee for the Alliance for Progress), and Rómulo Almeida, once of LAFTA and more recently of the now defunct “Committee of Nine Wise Men” that was to review Latin American development plans.
The Central American Common market and the Latin American Free Trade Association are discussed in each volume. Concerning the former, the writers agree that integration efforts are proving successful and that the prospects for fuller integration are fairly good, including the coordination of fiscal and monetary policy and the formulation of a Central American agricultural as well as industrial policy. Further, there is much in the recent Central American experience of value to other balkanized parts of the less developed world. Still, it is generally concluded that not much has been accomplished in the Latin American free trade zone. Why? All writers agree more or less explicitly with the Economic Commission for Latin America—the intellectual father of the integration movement—that more integration is needed. Each also points to a number of obstacles, including unequal levels of development, monetary and exchange instability, and the difficulty of negotiating product-by-product reductions in duties. Vested interest in protection are strong, for intra-zone trade is still a small proportion of total trade, and Latin American businessmen are not export-minded. In view of such obstacles, the authors differ as to the chances of progress. Almeida is completely pessimistic, declaring that few besides officials have any faith in integration. On the other hand, Felipe Herrera, more optimistic, holds that integration has come to be the principal concern of political, labor, and business leaders. Turning to concrete programs, all propose automatic across-the-line tariff reductions, a common market, and measures for coordinating fiscal and other policies. Yet it is doubtful that much can be accomplished along these lines in the immediate future against the obstacles which the authors themselves note. One of them remarks: “In Latin America, more than elsewhere, the enemy of that which is good is the best. Instead of organizing for the big leap forward, one should discern and implement the more modest immediate possibilities for progress” (Herrera et al., p. 106). Only a few of the authors emphasize some steps that could be undertaken at once, including improvements in transport, certain regional projects, and sectorial agreements. Some, including Herrera, also point out that foreign assistance could further development and integration.
The quality of the articles is uneven. Eckstein’s contains a good analytical presentation of the origins of the integration movement and of difficulties encountered and some good suggestions. Some are more analytical than others, but all are interesting in that they show a wide area of agreement with some differences in emphasis. Yet for American readers the books under review add hardly anything to other material of at least the same quality that is more readily available in such works as M. S. Wionczek (ed.), Latin American Economic Integration.
