Regional integration from technology trade flow patterns

Abstract

The discussion on an appropriate commercial policy has focused on a dichotomous vision in which one can opt for a protectionist policy or for a policy of liberalization. However, this general differentiation ignores a broader vision in which trade is a dynamic tool over time and whose suitability depends on a response to a specific problem, based on an optimal strategy that is not necessarily white or black. Based on the consensus regarding the influence of productive and technological capacities on the competitiveness and the specialization patterns of the countries, and under which the developing countries usually have a low value-added productive export system, this document proposes a strategy viable. Integration can become the platform to improve competitiveness if it is anchored in technological and innovation processes as long as they facilitate learning, expand opportunities for intra-industry trade and improve the conditions of countries to insert in global value chains. In this way, the success of the commercial policy is not in the accuracy with which a policy recipe is applied, but in making intelligent decisions that allow a problem to be solved in a better way and thus solve the present difficulties in order to fulfill with the goals of the future.