13th June 2012The special relationship with the United States, and the UK's historic links with Canada and the Caribbean are all well know, but is Britain well placed to benefit from the growing economies of Latin America?
This was the question we asked of the panellists at the Britain and the Americas event.
Baroness Hooper stated that while the UK may have a special relationship with USA, it also had one with Latin America and it would be to Britain's detriment to forget or ignore that fact.
This view was echoed was by the other panellists, who voiced concerns that opportunities were already being missed as Asia remained the focus of global trade.
The opening of new embassies and the expansion of existing ones was praised, as was the work of UKTI in the region. However the panellists agreed that the barriers to trade were not to be underestimated. John Spellar MP highlighted the lack of airport capacity and the need to use Madrid as a gateway as a particular issue, while Baroness Hooper's suggested that there was a need for more Spanish language teaching in UK schools. She said this could counteract perceptions of the region as a difficult place to invest in or trade with.
From the perspective of Latin America, Mario Alvarez said that there was an opportunity for the region to establish itself as a destination where intellectual property rights were respected, in contrast to some of the problems businesses have had in China.
There was a general consensus that opportunities were being missed in Latin America and that the real difficulty was the region not being in the spotlight or "in fashion" as a trade and investment destination.
Held in the CPA room, Houses of Parliament on Wednesday 13th June 2012
Chair:
•Juliana Iootty, Americas Editor, BBC World Service
Panellists:
•John Spellar, Shadow Minister for Foreign and Commonwealth Office
•Baroness Hooper CMG, Chair of Latin America APPG & Vice-Chair of Central America APPG
•Mario González Alvarez, Co-Director of Latin American Trade and Investment Association (LA