Office of the Chief Economist – Latin America and the Caribbean Draft Version Latin America and the Caribbean’s Response to the Growth of China and India: Overview of Research Findings and Policy Implications1

The economic success of China and India is looked upon with admiration but also concern about the effects that the growth of these Asian economies may have on the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region’s manufacturing and services sectors. The evidence summarized here indicates that certain manufacturing and service industries in some countries, particularly in Mexico and to a lesser extent in Central America and the Caribbean, have been negatively affected by Chinese and Indian competition in third markets. Also, LAC imports from China and India have been associated with modest unemployment and adjustment costs in manufacturing industries. Nevertheless, there is substantial evidence of positive aggregate effects for LAC economies associated with China and India’s greater presence in world exports, financial flows, and innovation. Even though there is significant heterogeneity of such effects across LAC sub-regions, China and India’s growth is creating new production possibilities for LAC economies, in particular for sectors that rely on natural resources and scientific knowledge, which not only benefit from the growing internal markets of the two Asian economies and thei