Trade and Sustainable Development Goals in Latin America and the Caribbean

This chapter explores the complex relationship between trade and sustainable development in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). While trade has long been a driver of economic growth in the region, its heavy reliance on natural resource exports and structurally unequal labour markets poses significant sustainability challenges. Drawing on both historical insights, and contemporary trade dynamics, the chapter examines how LAC countries are navigating environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability. It highlights recent trade policy developments, trade agreements, and regional initiatives aimed at integrating sustainability into trade frameworks and evaluates the region’s potential to leverage sustainable trade as a tool for inclusive and resilient development in line with the SDGs.

This is a draft chapter. The final version is available in The Elgar Companion to International Trade Law and the Sustainable Development Goals edited by Andreas R. Ziegler and Xinyan Zhao, published in 2026, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd
http://dx.doi.org/10.4337/978XXXXXXXXXX.000XX

It is deposited under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.

Without limiting the author's and publisher's exclusive rights, any unauthorised use of this work to train generative artificial intelligence (Al) technologies is expressly prohibited.