Latin America has had a good decade. It came through the financial crisis relatively unscathed and its recent record of economic policy-making (with some obvious country exceptions that nonetheless confirm the regional rule) means it can wave a finger at the US and Europe with some moral authority.
So it is a disappointment that, in the face of external threats to their own industrial competitiveness, several countries are stoking life into old protectionist ghosts. Instead of collaborating in the face of a common risk, they run the danger of tearing each other down.
The threats are real enough. Most Latin American economies have been on the receiving end of a wave of money unleashed by aggressive monetary policy in the crisis-stricken northern hemisphere. Real exchange-rate appreciation erodes the competitiveness of traded goods producers, an erosion accelerated by China’s currency peg to the dollar. Latin American policy makers blame both Beijing and the west.