UK-Latin America trade: Room to grow

18 Oct 2021 12:05 PM

EXPERT COMMENT

Examining the trade relationship between the UK and the Latin America region, with a particular focus on agriculture, financial services, and trade pacts.

In 1999 the then director of Chatham House, Victor Bulmer-Thomas wrote in his monograph British Trade with Latin America in the 19th and 20th Centuries that commercial and investment ties between the UK and Latin America had been underperforming since the 1970s.

Little has changed since then. Potential remains for increased trade and investment in areas such as agriculture (primarily exports from Latin America to the UK) and financial services and technology (primarily investment and exports from the UK to Latin America).

In an informal survey, Chatham House asked investors and commercial attachés on both sides of the Atlantic why commerce and investment numbers were so low. These were the common themes in their answers.

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