The Pattern of Trade and Specialisation in the Central American Common Market

Larry Willmore ()

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to analyse the structural changes and pattern of specialisation that followed the formation of the Central American Common Market (CACM) in the early 1960s. In the first section it is shown that the fear did exist that trade-creating and "backwash" effects would dominate as a result of unrestricted free trade in the region. In sections two and three, evidence is presented to suggest that these fears have proved to be largely unfounded. The operation of market forces has led to an unplanned reciprocal exchange of manufactures for manufactures and non-manufactures for non-manufactures. Moreover, most of the structural changes within the manufacturing sector appear to have taken the form of intra-industry specialisation, i.e. specialisation in the differentiated products of an industry with no need to abandon entire high-cost industries.

Keywords: Intra-industry trade; Central America (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F13 F15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1973, Revised 1974
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in Journal of Economic Studies 2.1(1974): pp. 113-134

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Related works:
Journal Article: THE PATTERN OF TRADE AND SPECIALISATION IN THE CENTRAL AMERICAN COMMON MARKET (1974)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:116196

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