Canning Papers

The possibilities for international businesses in the Cuban market have been greatly restricted by US sanctions and by the Cuban system of economic management since the early 1960s. Both of these are now undergoing a transformation. The restoration of US-Cuban diplomatic relations – announced on December 17th 2014 and eventually implemented in mid-2015 – represents a huge political breakthrough after 54 years, and has heralded some initial easing of sanctions regulations and expectations of further moves ahead. Within Cuba, a process of economic transformation, which began in response to the demise of the Soviet bloc in the early 1990s, has intensified under the presidency of Raúl Castro. The legal complexities, economic pressures and shifting political currents within the US and Cuba create both opportunities and difficulties for international businesses considering the Cuban market. This paper examines the current position and prospects.

In 2010 the British government announced its intention to re-engage with Latin America. Five years on, this report seeks to establish the degree to which the UK has succeeded in this, and how the government can help maintain and accelerate the progress of a revitalized relationship between the UK and Latin America.

Brazil and Mexico, the world’s seventh and fifteenth largest economies respectively, account for 55% of Latin America's population, over half of its GDP and 58% of its exports. Yet bilateral merchandise trade between the two in 2014 was a relatively trifling US$9.2bn, down from a record high of just US$10.2bn in 2012. Despite numerous attempts to forge closer ties over the past twenty years, self-interest has repeatedly scuppered approximation. There are signs, however, that recent engagement may result in a more significant and productive relationship.

A political era is ending in Argentina. Over three consecutive four-year presidential terms since 2003, the country has been governed by the Kirchners: starting with the late Néstor Kirchner, who was president in 2003-2007 and was then succeeded then by his wife, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, in 2009 (Néstor died in 2010). During that time, the economy experienced some impressively high growth rates, but since the ending of the commodities boom and the intensification of the government’s interventionist and heterodox economic policies, things have got worse. In particular, Argentina has been dogged in recent years by disputes with its foreign creditors, along with US dollar scarcities, high domestic inflation and stagnant economic growth. General elections are due to be held in October 2015, and this paper looks forward to what might be in store.

After a busy election year in 2014, with general elections in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Colombia, Panama, Brazil and Uruguay, in 2015 all eyes will be on Argentina, where the end of the radical left-wing Kirchner era looks nigh, but Peronism looks set to live on, albeit dressed more moderately.

This report was written when Mexico — the second largest country in Latin America by size of population and economy, a neighbour and partner of the US, one of the world’s top 15 economies, and a member of important interna- tional ‘clubs’ such as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Devel- opment (OECD), the G20 group of developed economies, and the Pacific Alliance — is on the cusp of major changes.