13:39 | Princeton (U.S.), Feb. 25.
Protectionism may lead to a bad trend and make things worse, said President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in his remarks about global trade during the lecture "A New Age for Latin America" at Princeton University.
According to the 78-year-old, in the last three years, world trade first slowed as a result of the financial crisis and then started to decline. It has declined at 2% to 3% a year in the last two-three years, and the clear sign of that is major shipping groups have gone broke.
"Protectionism, which some see as a solution, is rearing its head and is going to cause this bad tendency to worsen. This is a really major issue," President Kuczynski said from New Jersey.
He went on to explain that, in light of Latin America's slow growth rates, the region has to focus on strengthening institutions, rule of law, technological education, information education and scientific research.
"We have 15 years, that's it. If we haven't turned the page on this education and technology revolution in 15 years, we'll not fade away but we'll slowly stagnate; I don't think that will happen, [and] I think that people will address the challenge."
Regarding U.S.-Latin America relations, he said the United States focuses on areas that cause trouble, like the Middle East zone, and it does not invest much time in Latin America, as it does not cause any problems.
However, he said it [the relationship] is a huge problem in the case of Venezuela, due to the crisis it faces today.
The Peruvian leader welcomed the new course in Cuba-U.S. relations and noted such openness reduced polarization levels in Latin America, so it is important to follow that path to avoid divisions.
Published: 2/25/2017