April 11, 2018
From the article:
Pablo Guidotti, following an April 10 event at the Center for Global Development in Washington, DC, told Inside U.S. Trade Brazil and Argentina would likely secure “permanent exclusions” because those countries “are not currently” conducting trade negotiations with the U.S., unlike the NAFTA countries and others in trade talks with the U.S. Guidotti is a member of the Latin American Committee on Macroeconomic and Financial Issues (CLAAF) and previously served as Argentina’s vice minister of finance.
Both Guidotti and Liliana Rojas-Suarez, who is a former chief economist for Latin America at Deutsche Bank, said they did not expect trade deliverables to stem from the summit now that Trump has canceled his plans to attend.
“Nothing will happen at the summit now that Trump is not going,” Guidotti said.
CLAAF, which is composed of former officials and analysts who assess trends regional finance and trade issues, previewed a statement it plans to release this week on Latin American concerns over escalating trade tensions between the U.S. and China.
“If escalating protectionism eventually affects China and U.S. economic growth, most Latin American countries could suffer through a reduction of commodity prices, as capital flows to the region have traditionally been highly correlated with commodity prices,” the group said in the previewed statement sent to Inside U.S. Trade. “A perfect storm may be in the making, as international interest rates are starting to increase, trade conflicts are on the rise, and the traditional safety net offered by multilateral [organizations] may be weaker than in the past.”