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23/09/2011 | Canning’s ghost: The government is newly enamoured of Latin America

The Economist Staff

AS IT slips down the league table of world power, it has become customary in recent years for Britain to close diplomatic outposts. So it bucks the trend that next spring the British embassy in El Salvador will reopen after an interval of nine years. Around the same time, a new consulate will open in Recife, serving Brazil’s fast developing north-east.

 

And up to ten extra diplomats will be assigned to embassies in the capitals of some of the bigger Latin American countries. “Britain’s retreat from the region is over,” William Hague, the foreign secretary, declared in a lecture last year that signalled the new policy.

This is part of a broader effort by the coalition government to pay more attention to fast-growing emerging economies. While cutting posts in Europe, the Foreign Office is adding them in China and India as well as Latin America. The aim is not just to boost trade, but also to recognise the changing balance of power in the world.

In this sectionRelated topics

In the case of Latin America, Britain has been there before. George Canning, foreign secretary in the 1820s, exaggerated when he boasted “I have called the New World into existence, to redress the balance of the Old”. But Britain did play an important role in Latin America’s independence struggles, only to ignore the region for much of the 20th century—so much so that Argentina’s invasion of the Falkland Islands in 1982 came as a surprise.

After a decade of fast growth, Latin America now accounts for almost 9% of the world economy. But it is the destination for only 1.5% of British exports (down from two-fifths in 1808). And Britain supplies only 1% of the region’s imports. Brazil imports less from Britain than from the Netherlands. “We are a mid-table European country in commercial relations with one of the big emerging economies,” says Jeremy Browne, a Foreign Office minister. “We should aspire to more than that.” The government has set targets of doubling exports to Brazil and bilateral trade with Mexico by 2015. Most of the new diplomats will be “prosperity officers”, who will help British firms understand markets and lobby to lower trade and investment barriers.

The past year has seen a flurry of ministerial visits to Latin America. Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, went down particularly well in Mexico, where he addressed the Congress in fluent Spanish. David Cameron may visit both Brazil and Mexico next year. Mr Browne says that the government finds much agreement with countries such as Mexico and Colombia on global issues, from climate change to Libya. It helps that Latin America is now a region of increasingly strong democracies.

Still, Britain will find the terms of the diplomatic trade in Latin America have changed since a brief attempt at courtship 15 years ago. The days when a visiting British minister could command headlines in a place like Brazil are over. Since becoming Brazil’s president in January, Dilma Rousseff has visited Argentina and China and welcomed Barack Obama to Brasília, but barely set foot in Europe. Brazil now has more diplomatic missions in Africa than Britain has.

Latin American diplomats naturally welcome greater British interest in their countries. Some also see opportunities for their companies to buy up British rivals. But they remain sceptical as to whether the flirtation will become a deeper relationship. “When you go and see a British minister they express enthusiasm for Latin America, but it’s not part of their life-support system,” says one ambassador.

The Economist (Reino Unido)

 


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16/09/2009|
16/09/2009|
08/09/2009|
07/09/2009|
06/09/2009|
06/09/2009|
05/09/2009|
05/09/2009|
26/08/2009|
21/08/2009|
19/08/2009|
19/08/2009|
15/08/2009|
15/08/2009|
15/08/2009|
11/08/2009|
11/08/2009|
11/08/2009|
11/08/2009|
19/07/2009|
19/07/2009|
18/07/2009|
18/07/2009|
27/03/2009|
22/03/2009|
22/03/2009|
27/01/2009|
27/01/2009|
27/01/2009|
17/01/2009|
17/01/2009|
17/01/2009|
17/01/2009|
17/01/2009|
17/01/2009|
11/01/2009|
06/12/2008|
06/12/2008|
06/12/2008|
06/12/2008|
23/11/2008|
23/11/2008|
16/11/2008|
16/11/2008|
04/11/2008|
04/11/2008|
03/11/2008|
03/11/2008|
24/10/2008|
24/10/2008|
24/10/2008|
24/10/2008|
15/09/2008|
15/09/2008|
15/09/2008|
15/09/2008|
15/09/2008|
15/09/2008|
06/09/2008|
06/09/2008|
05/09/2008|
05/09/2008|
05/09/2008|
05/09/2008|
01/09/2008|
01/09/2008|
01/09/2008|
01/09/2008|
22/08/2008|
22/08/2008|
17/08/2008|
17/08/2008|
16/08/2008|
16/08/2008|
28/07/2008|
28/07/2008|
28/07/2008|
28/07/2008|
28/07/2008|
28/07/2008|
19/07/2008|
19/07/2008|
24/05/2008|
24/05/2008|
03/05/2008|
03/05/2008|
29/04/2008|
11/02/2008|
05/01/2008|
09/12/2007|
18/11/2007|
10/11/2007|
10/11/2007|
06/11/2007|
06/11/2007|
06/09/2007|
26/08/2007|
25/08/2007|
11/07/2007|
16/06/2007|
16/06/2007|
10/06/2007|
10/06/2007|
19/05/2007|
19/05/2007|
19/05/2007|
19/05/2007|
24/04/2007|
24/04/2007|
14/04/2007|
14/04/2007|
05/04/2007|
05/04/2007|
05/04/2007|
28/02/2007|
28/02/2007|
05/02/2007|
05/02/2007|
04/02/2007|
04/02/2007|
04/02/2007|
04/02/2007|
04/02/2007|
04/02/2007|
29/01/2007|
29/01/2007|
29/01/2007|
29/01/2007|
11/01/2007|
11/01/2007|
11/01/2007|
11/01/2007|
27/12/2006|
27/12/2006|
27/12/2006|
27/12/2006|
27/12/2006|
27/12/2006|
20/12/2006|
20/12/2006|
17/11/2006|
30/09/2006|
28/07/2006|
12/04/2006|
12/04/2006|
12/04/2006|
06/03/2006|
21/02/2006|
17/02/2006|
31/01/2006|
10/01/2006|
28/12/2005|
31/10/2005|
26/09/2005|
29/08/2005|
11/08/2005|
08/08/2005|
24/06/2005|
24/06/2005|
24/06/2005|
03/04/2005|
03/04/2005|
03/04/2005|
03/04/2005|

ver + notas
 
Center for the Study of the Presidency
Freedom House