South of the border
23 April 2021
Latin America is large and diverse. As Julian Champkin discovers, its market for lifting gear is recovering from the pandemic.
Each country in Central and South America is different,” says Juan Jose Padilla, international sales manager for Harrington Hoists.
“Each has its own regulations, economies and rules; and although it is a convenient term, in reality Latin America cannot be defined as just one big common region.”
Thus, Mexico’s international trade, he says, is dominated mostly by manufacturing. “It participated in the recently signed USMCA (US-Mexico- Canada agreement) and sends its manufactured goods to the US and Canada. Chile on the other hand is more of a mining-based economy. The upper Central American triangle is agricultural rather than industrial, and the “northern” South American countries such as Ecuador, Peru and Colombia are a mix of both mining and industrial economies. Panama relies heavily on the Panama Canal and Free Trade transport while Costa Rica relies heavily in tourism, some mining and very light manufacturing.”