Keywords
pacific alliance 4
Colombia
regional specialization
revealed comparative advantages
How to Cite
Abstract
This article explores how the extension of the Pacific Alliance (PA) to Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Singapore would affect Colombia’s regional specialization. The indicator of Revealed Comparative Advantages (RCA) is calculated in terms of Contribution to the Commercial Balance (CCB) for Colombia in two exchange zones: the PA and the Pacific Alliance + 4 (PA + 4). Moving from the first zone to the second one, more products lose their comparative advantages with respect to the products that acquire advantages. Thus, PA + 4 would involve more threats than opportunities for regional specialization in Colombia, and would mainly affect food products, manufactured goods and transport machinery and equipment. Previously, the use of the RCA-CCB indicator is justified because of its better stationary trend in time, compared with other representative RCA indicators.
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