The Open Veins of Latin America: long-term physical trade flows (1900-2016)

Latin America has long played a key role in the global provision of natural resources. Most of the continent's economies are net exporters of low-value, primary products and importers of manufactured goods at a high price. This pattern of specialised trade has highly negative consequences for economic development, the environment, and the local population’s wellbeing. Yet to date, little empirical evidence has been collected on Latin America’s total contribution to the rest of the world's regions. Applying the Material Flow Accounting methodology, this paper estimated the physical and monetary trade of 16 Latin American economies between 1900 and 2016. Our results showed that: (i) net exports of materials went from 4 Mt to 610 Mt between 1900 and 2016, and greatly accelerated since the 1980s. (ii) Latin America is a net exporter of all types of materials (energy, non-energy minerals and biomass), so it harbours socioenvironmental problems associated with different types of extractivism. (iii) Different regional export patterns exist: Andeans export subsoil (mining and energy) while the rest export soil (land). The countries with the lowest net exports are the smallest in size and with the highest population density.

INFANTE-AMATE Juan;  URREGO Alexander;  PINERO MIRA Pablo;  TELLO Enric; 

2022-09-16

ELSEVIER SCI LTD

JRC128262

0959-3780 (online),   

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378022001170?via%3Dihub,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC128262,   

10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2022.102579 (online),