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1. What Bond Markets Can Learn from Argentina

Author:
Anna Gelpern
Publication Date:
04-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:
Argentina has completed the largest and most complex sovereign bond restructuring in history. Before the debt exchange, it owed about $82 billion in principal and $20 billion in past due interest. Hundreds of thousands of creditors held 150 kinds of defaulted instruments issued in six currencies under the laws of eight jurisdictions. Creditors owed just over 76% of the total, or $62 billion, got $35 billion in new performing bonds. Other performing debt includes $40 billion in domestic and about $30 billion in multi-lateral obligations. Argentina left behind almost $25 billion in defaulted principal and interest.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
Argentina and South America

2. Senator Kerry on Corporate Tax Reform: Right Diagnosis, Wrong Prescription

Author:
Gary Clyde Hufbauer and Paul Grieco
Publication Date:
04-2004
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:
Senator John Kerry has proposed a major overhaul in corporate taxation, with the goal of persuading multinational companies (MNCs) to employ more workers at home and fewer abroad. Kerry has correctly emphasized that domestic production is often taxed at a higher rate than production abroad, but his prescriptions will not boost US jobs.
Topic:
Development, Globalization, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United States, South America, Central America, Caribbean, and North America

3. This Far and No Further? Nudging Agricultral Reform Forward

Author:
Tim Josling and Dale Hathaway
Publication Date:
03-2004
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:
As countries attempt to restart the stalled Doha Round and continue the negotiations on further agricultural trade reform and liberalization, it is useful to take stock of the progress made so far in the light of both the objectives of countries and the needs of the trading system. This policy brief reviews the main objectives of the agricultural talks in the World Trade Organization (WTO), examines the major proposals that emerged in the run-up to Cancún and at the ministerial itself, describes the emerging framework for further reform, and suggests ways in which the negotiations can build on this progress to achieve a worthwhile outcome.
Topic:
Agriculture, Economics, International Political Economy, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
South America

4. US-Brazil Trade Relations in a New Era

Author:
Jeffrey J. Schott
Publication Date:
08-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:
The United States and Brazil are the largest economies in North and South America, respectively. A generation ago, both were relatively closed economies in terms of the proportion of their trade to gross domestic product (GDP), but for sharply different reasons. The US market was highly competitive except for some light manufactures (e.g., textiles, clothing, and footwear) and a few agricultural sectors with high border barriers. By contrast, Brazilian industry was largely uncompetitive and highly subsidized; important commodities like coffee provided the bulk of exports while a large share of the value of most industrial exports was attributable to export subsidies.
Topic:
International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United States, Brazil, South America, Latin America, and Caribbean

5. Is Brazil Next?

Author:
John Williamson
Publication Date:
08-2002
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:
This policy brief examines whether the pessimism that recently gripped the financial markets about Brazil's economic prospects is justified, and whether the big IMF program in support of Brazil announced on August 8, 2002, is likely to succeed in turning the tide. It concludes that present policies would be adequate to secure a gradual reduction in the debt/GDP ratio given return of the exchange rate to a less undervalued level and a level of interest rates that is normal by past Brazilian standards though still high by world standards, though not under the recent conditions of a severely undervalued real and astronomical interest rates. It also concludes that the strongly improving trend recently evident in Brazilian trade promises a progressive reduction in external vulnerability, though this again could be jeopardized by the maintenance of sky-high interest rates. It then argues that, despite the mixed records of the two principal opposition candidates for the presidency, neither would be likely to choose a policy of deliberately reneging on Brazil's debts. That being so, the recent market turbulence has to be interpreted as a panic in which even those convinced that Brazil's fundamentals are sound did not dare to speculate in favor of restoration of normality. Such situations are exactly those where the IMF can play a useful role in breaking a panic, and hence the new loan much improves the chances of Brazil avoiding the implosion that would be likely to follow a debt restructuring.
Topic:
Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
Brazil and South America

6. Toward A Sustainable FTAA: Does Latin America Meet The Necessary Financial Preconditions?

Author:
Liliana Rojas-Suarez
Publication Date:
07-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:
This paper focuses on identifying preconditions that will ensure the sustainability of a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). It argues that the macro, micro, and political conditions advanced in the literature to measure a country's ability to compete internationally, while necessary, are not sufficient to ensure the success and permanence of a free trade agreement. Instead, two additional financial conditions are needed. The first is that each partner in the free trade area needs to have sustainable public debts as determined by the achievement of credible and sustainable structural fiscal balances. The second is that exchange rate regimes across trading partners should be compatible in the sense that adverse shocks in one country do not generate a policy dilemma in other partners between abandoning their exchange rate system or the free trade area.
Topic:
Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
South America, Latin America, Central America, and Caribbean