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The Central American Common Market: Economic and Political Integration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

John R. Hildebrand
John R. Hildebrand*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, Texas Technological College, Lubbock, Texas
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Extract

As indicated by the voluminous professional and popular literature published over the past decade, there is now widespread interest in steps toward economic and political integration on a wide variety of regional and global bases. In this paper I intend to examine some of the issues arising from integration efforts. The geographic and functional bases of current integrational efforts are indeed numerous. It is fascinating to review the many reasons or motivations behind these striking developments of which the Central American Common Market is one important example. The reasons behind these developments are not new to this decade, but rather are the results of a more general concern or awareness of current problems and current possibilities. Attitudes and values are also undergoing changes.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Inter-American Studies , Volume 9 , Issue 3 , July 1967 , pp. 383 - 395
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 1967

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References

1 This study was partially financed by a State of Texas Research Grant. While researching in Mexico City in the summer of 1966, the author was grateful for assistance from Hernán Navarrete of the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization, and from Carlos Castillo and Joseph Moscarella, Director and Sub-Director respectively of the Mexico Office of the United Nations’ Economic Commission for Latin America which has inspired and worked closely with the Central American integration movement. Dr. Moscarella has now been promoted to Director of ECLA and Dr. Castillo has moved up to Secretary General in Guatemala City of the Permanent Secretariat of the Central American Treaty of Economic Integration (SIECA). Though Mr. Navarrete and Mr. Moscarella have read the manuscript and have provided helpful suggestions, the author must bear responsibility for the contents of the manuscript. The author also appreciated the assistance, while in Guatemala during the summers of 1964 and 1965, of Henry DuFlon, Director of the Regional Organization for Central America and Panama. In addition, the helpful services of the United Nations’ librarians in the Mexico Office should he mentioned.

2 See the report Informe de la Novena Reunion del Comne de Cooperación Económica del Istmo Centroamericano (Guatemala, 25 a 31 de enero de 1966), Comisión Económica para América Latina, Naciones Unidas.

3 Reidy, Joseph W., Strategy for the Americas (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1966), Chapters 2 and 9.Google Scholar

4 Public Papers of the Presidents, John F. Kennedy, 1962 (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1963), p. 173.

5 Text of the Declaration to the Peoples of America, Department of State Bulletin, 45 (September 11, 1962), p. 462.

6 Text of the Declaration of Central America, Department of State Bulletin, 48 (April 8, 1963), p. 515.

7 See page 363 of Economics by Campbell R. McConnell (New York: McGraw- Hill Book Co., 1966) for a figure of $24,000 worth of capital equipment for the average U.S. worker in manufacturing. Kindleberger, C. P., Economic Development (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1965), page 265 Google Scholar, cites in the 1955 Hoover Commission Report an overall estimate for the U.S. economy of a $10,000 investment needed for each new job. Particular industries may exceed a million dollars per employee as is indicated for carbon-black plants by Fryer, D. W., World Economic Development (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1965), p. 261.Google Scholar

8 See page 34 of the cover story in the July 23, 1962, issue of Newsweek for a discussion of many of these revisions in U.S. policy.

9 Public Papers of the Presidents, John F. Kennedy, 1962 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1963), p. 538.

10 For an excellent development of this theme see especially pages 57 to 78 of the 1962 Oodkin Lectures delivered by Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller at Harvard University in 1962 and published by Harvard University Press in 1962 under the title, The Future of Federalism.

11 See the various reports of the April 12 to 14, 1967 Punta del Este Meeting of Chiefs of State for striking evidence of current support for the economic integration of Latin America. In the “Declaration of the Presidents of America,” the message in support of a common market for Latin America comes through loud and clear. The American Chiefs of State, by taking this major step toward economic integration, may have initiated the most significant action in this hemisphere since the American nations gained independence. The target date for inaugurating the common market is set at 1970. Nearly full operation is expected by 1985. Hopefully, the elimination of internal restrictions on trade and the transition to a common external tariff will be achieved by regular periodic steps during the fifteen-year interval.