Inter-American Dialogue Board Member Kellie Meiman Hock spoke with the AS/COA podcast Latin America in Focus about how recent U.S. trade policy has prompted Mercosur and other countries across the hemisphere to diversify their commercial relationships.
On May 1, a transatlantic trade deal covering 31 countries and a quarter of global GDP comes into effect. Some thought it would never materialize, but after 25 years of off-and-on negotiations, Mercosur and the European Union committed to one of the largest free-trade deals in the world. So why did the two trade blocs to sign on the dotted line?
“The reality is that today, given the approach that the United States is taking on trade policy, it really is nudging countries […] to go ahead and take those risks. Because the risk of doing nothing is much higher than the risk of doing something.”
