Utah trade important to Latin American countries

Hear “Pacific Rim” and a word unlikely to come to mind is “Colombia.”

But representatives from that country and three more Latin American nations were in Utah recently to strengthen economic ties that ultimately could be mutually beneficial.

Hear “Pacific Rim” and a word unlikely to come to mind is “Colombia.”

But representatives from that country and three more Latin American nations were in Utah recently to strengthen economic ties that ultimately could be mutually beneficial.

U.S. ambassadors from Chili, Columbia and Peru and the consul general of Mexico met with government and business officials for the annual meeting of the Pacific Alliance, a trade bloc formed in 2011 of those Pacific Ocean-bordering nations.

“Utah is very important for us, not only because you are an amazing trade partner. … but also because we share values,” Eduardo Arnal Palomera, consul general of Mexico, said at a Salt Lake City luncheon that was part of the Utah trip. “The Mexican society and society in Utah, we have the same values in many fields: in family, in democracy and many issues that we share, and we have a lot of history together.”

At the luncheon, the dignitaries spoke about significant economic opportunity for Utah companies in the region. Last year, Utah companies exported more than $972 million in goods to alliance member countries, or about 7 percent of total Utah exports. Combined, the alliance nations have a larger economy than that of Brazil, and the four founding nations represent nearly 36 percent of Latin American GDP. Together, they would be the sixth-largest economy in the world.

Among opportunities in Mexico are those in energy generation, telecommunications, aerospace and information technology, Palomera said. In Colombia, they exist in agriculture, forestry, clean energy and energy conservation, and advanced technologies for mining and oil and gas industries, according to Juan Carlos Pinzón, Colombian ambassador to the U.S.

Juan Gabriel Valdés, Chilean ambassador to the U.S., said his country produces only 40 percent of the energy it needs, so it is working to develop renewables from solar, ocean and hydroelectric resources. Chile also has a growing food industry and a need for investment in infrastructure such as roads, sea ports and highway mountain tunnels.

Luis Miguel Castilla, Peru’s ambassador to the U.S., also mentioned the need for investment in physical capital, including ports, telecommunications and fiber-optic networks, saying opportunities exist for large companies but also for medium-sized and small firms as well. While Peru is rich in natural resources, it faces a challenge in trying to diversify and offer a more robust economy, he said.

Several of the dignitaries stressed that opportunity also exists because of growing middle classes in their nations, particularly in their young populations.

“This gives an opportunity for you to look at growing classes of people — young people that are demanding all sorts of goods and services, from mobile phones to retail consumption goods,” Castilla said. “I think that varies from country to country, but I think there is an opportunity there overall.”

While all four countries have free trade agreements with the U.S., Valdés said in-depth economic relationships are best fostered with state and local governments and communities. Pinzón described Utah as a place where “innovation is happening” in part because it is well-connected to the world through the various languages spoken in the state.

Speaking about the Pacific Alliance’s objectives, Valdés said its creation “doesn’t mean that we to want to divide the continent between those countries that border the Pacific and those that border the Atlantic.” Instead, the alliance recognizes the advantages of the member nations’ economies and seeks further economic development. All four countries “are recognizing the enormous importance of the Pacific Ocean in this new century,” he said.

The alliance will allow for more free trade among the nations, create a common financial system, lead to more homogenous regulation, allow for smoother movement of people among the countries, and boost services, the group said.

Castilla described the Pacific Alliance as “this great brand” that can help lead to “policy harmonization.” The group will make the region more attractive to investors, who will “look upon us as a reliable partner where rule of law prevails, where we don’t destroy our economies with protectionist policies, where we compete with skills, with innovation, with efficiency. …” he said.

The goals that the dignitaries listed “are all ways so we can really generate growth [and] jobs in a more complicated world,” Castilla said, noting that more-robust economic policies are needed among member nations. “And I think by pooling our efforts, we can definitely be able to transit and to keep on growing and generate jobs and opportunities together as a group,” he said.

The Pacific Alliance allows the nations to better build partnerships between the public and private sector, with academia and with the U.S., he said.

“All of this is really the agenda that brings us here: to get to know each other, to build outreach, and to act as bridges so that we can really connect the opportunities that there are,” Castilla told the luncheon crowd. “We have seen in Utah really, truly, a great partner already but a potential [for] even a deeper partner in the future.”

Utah is the first state in the western U.S. to serve as the site of the Pacific Alliance annual meeting. The past two years, the meeting was in New York and Dallas. Utah Valley University hosted the dignitaries in partnership with World Trade Center Utah and the Governor’s Office of Economic Development. UVU was the site of the annual meeting as well as an economic summit.