GDAE’s Timothy A. Wise was in Brazil and Bolivia for the launch of the Portuguese and Spanish versions of the report, “The Promise and the Perils of Agricultural Trade Liberalization: Lessons from Latin America.” The report, released last year in English with the Washington Office on Latin America, finds that the promise of trade liberalization – access to export markets – is overstated while the perils – the loss of livelihoods among smallholders due to rising imports – are very real. Now the background papers on which the report is based have been edited into a book in Spanish.
The Portuguese version of the report, published with ActionAid-Brazil and edited by project co-chair Sergio Schlesinger, was released in Rio de Janeiro June 12, 2009, as part of the Latin American Studies Association congress.
The Spanish report, edited by co-chair Mamerto Pérez, was published by the Bolivian NGO AIPE, which has also published a book-length volume in Spanish of the case studies on which the report is based. AIPE also hosted launch events in La Paz, Bolivia June 17-18, 2009, which included a well-attended public event and extensive press coverage including on the country’s most widely disseminated radio program. Wise and Pérez also met with Ramiro Lizondo Diaz, Vice Minister for Small Enterprise Development, which is responsible for some of the most recent efforts by the government of Evo Morales to strengthen the peasant economy.
Download the English report here
Download the Spanish report and book, La Promesa y los Peligros de la Liberalización del Comercio Agrícola: Lecciones de América Latina here
Download the Portuguese report here
Read more on the Working Group on Development and Environment in the Americas, including reports on the Environment and Foreign Investment
Read more on GDAE’s Globalization and Sustainable Development Program
