Trade Openness and Inflation in Latin American Countries

In the pre-reforms period the trade policy in Latin America had involved very high levels of protection and government intervention. The recent trade liberalization policies of the Latin American countries have sought to reverse the protectionist policies and open the scope for foreign direct investment and joint ventures in the public and private sector industries. This paper discusses the impact of trade openness policy on tariff structure, export competitiveness, inflation and economic growth of Latin American countries. The relationship between the trade openness and general price level as an indicator of inflation and robustness of this relationship has been explored in the study.