U.S. Should Look South for Better Supply Chains
When it comes to “friendshoring,” Latin America has much to offer, and much to gain.
Not too close, not too far.
Photographer: Jonne Roriz/Bloomberg via Getty Images
(The second article in a series on Latin America’s response to pressing global challenges. For the first and third, see “How Climate Change Can Bring Latin America Back” and “ Latin America Shouldn’t Be a Pawn in U.S.-China Rivalry.”)
Rising geopolitical tensions with China and the pandemic’s economic disruptions are prompting the U.S. government to shorten supply chains and bring manufacturing closer to home. In this quest to promote “friend-shoring,” the U.S. can have few better partners than its southern neighbors, which enjoy long-standing bilateral alliances, geographic proximity, preferential trading rules, and bounteous natural resources. Latin America would reap massive rewards by forging new supply chain links. By the same token, if the region misses this generational opportunity, it risks being pushed further to the global economy’s sidelines.