ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Polit. Sci.
Sec. Political Economy
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpos.2025.1494379
This article is part of the Research TopicExploring the Global Erosion of Democracy: Understanding Multicausal Threats and International DynamicsView all 5 articles
Observer States and Interregional Trade Between Asia and Latin America
Provisionally accepted
- 1Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia
- 2Universidad Icesi, Cali, Colombia
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This paper seeks to reduce the knowledge gap about the motivation of Asian and Oceanic countries that want to become permanent observers of formal regional integration agreements in Latin America and Caribbean, especially those related to international trade. Considering the rule of law as a norm, the authors reveal the interest that Asian and Oceanic countries have in observing the state of this norm by joining the formalized frameworks that promote international trade in Latin America and the Caribbean as observers. Besides, the paper shows how trade flows from Asia to States that make part of integration agreements in Latin America can influence the decision of Asian nations to seek a permanent observer status. The paper offers clear evidence that the Asian and Oceanic States are inclined to join preferential trade agreements as permanent observers when trade flows from Asian and Oceanic nations toward the members of the regional agreements become important: Asian and Oceanic States wish to protect the trade flows from the new regulations of international commerce that regional blocks may introduce.
Keywords: Latin America & Caribbean, Asia - Pacific, Observers, Rule of law, Trade, Regional trade agreement
Received: 10 Mar 2025; Accepted: 23 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Moreno León and Rouvinski. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Carlos Enrique Moreno Moreno León, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia
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