Ever since the onset of the Asian crisis, the U.S. government has redoubled our efforts to trade, and reaffirm our commitment to trade, throughout the world. But that is particularly important in Latin America. During the debt crisis in the 1980s, a number of U.S. firms abandoned their Latin operations, and still more scaled them back. Many of these same firms realized too late that they had made a mistake. Nothing is forever.
Hard times end.
When the markets recovered, new entrants quickly seized the opportunities. For those who had deserted Latin America, re-entry was both difficult and costly. The lesson has been learned. And everything is relative. Compared to some other regions of the world, Latin America even in a weakened condition still offers some of the best prospects for expanding U.S. exports.