U.S. Trade Sanctions Seek to Pressure Latin America

The U.S. government’s announcement that it will review the possibility of limiting, suspending, or withdrawing trade preferences under the General System of Preferences (GSP) to three Latin American countries—Argentina, Brazil, and Venezuela—is political pressure to make these nations participate in the model of regional integration proposed by the United States.

The change in rules has been interpreted by some of the Latin American governments cited as a threat in retaliation for their stand against the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) proposed by the United States at the recent presidential summit of the Americas held in Mar del Plata in November of 2005, and the resistance of the G-20 to accept the U.S. and European Union proposals in the WTO.