Manufactured exports from small Latin American economies: The challenges ahead

This article explores the challenges that small, less industrialized Latin American countries face in achieving sustained growth of manufactured exports. The improvement of export performance was one of the aims of the policy reforms adopted since the 1980s in line with the so-called Washington Consensus. The economic environment for manufacturing firms improved significantly, and growth of industrial production and exports was stimulated. Nevertheless, the manufacturing sector has not yet become a major engine of growth, and industrial exports have only recently started to increase. Moreover, manufactured exports depend to a high degree on strategies of foreign firms and arc mainly concentrated in relatively less dynamic sectors of world trade. Notwithstanding the broadness and comprehensiveness of the Washington Consensus, additional measures are needed in order to achieve the systemic competitiveness of manufacturing industries.