Regional Integration and Industrialization Policies in Latin America: A Conflictive Love Story

This paper discusses the relationship between regional integration and industrialization in Latin America over the past seventy years. To this end, it shows how ECLAC's structuralist thought and integrationist dynamics have influenced each other in practice. It outlines the positions on regional industrialization found in old regionalism, open regionalism and in 21st century regionalisms, and how such positions were shaped by conflicts between social groups. Specifically, it introduces the Andean Pact, MERCOSUR and ALBA as examples. This paper's contribution consists in reflecting critically on Latin American experiences of drafting and implementing common industrial policy in diverse contexts.