Desequilibrios en la balanza comercial andina : ¿se ajustan biofísicamente

After some years in which the terms of trade improved, some South American countries are now suffering from a new condition, deficits in the commercial balance of international trade (imports higher than exports, in dollars) while continuing to have persistent physical trade deficits (exports in tons much larger than imports in tons – we call this a physical “deficit” because it means that more materials are exported, depleting or degrading resources, than are imported). We give updated figures at least for three countries, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, although trends are similar in many other countries in South America. So, to the persistent structural historical situation (which continued also in the 1990s and 2000s until today) of negative terms of trade (one ton of imports is at least twice, often three times more expensive than a ton of exports), that was slightly alleviated in the last decade, it is now added (again) a further deterioration of terms of trade. As commercial deficits lead to current account deficits, there is need for external financing. As external debts will increase (again), there is a need for further exports of raw materials to pay for the debts, depleting resources, polluting the environment, and causing more and more socio-environmental conflict.