Chapter 2: The American continent: power in the North, affirmation in the South
The American continent is big: 42 million square kilometers, almost 15,000 km from North to South. Such a
large landmass is bound to have some diversity. But there, contrasts are more vivid than anywhere else.
The most striking one is the North / South division. North of the US / Mexican border, the USA and Canada
are among the wealthiest, most developed countries in the world. South of the border, Latin America is
made of a variety of LDCs composed of emerging countries, developing countries and some countries from
the Fourth world in the Caribbean Basin. The political division is also extreme.
Dreams of unity are ancient. But so far they have failed to materialize. Two countries seem to stand out as
potential unifiers for a divided continent. The USA is a global power, with a special interest for the
American continent. Brazil is an emerging power that tries to assert its regional influence.
Problematic: Is American unity on its way? How is the USA involved in unifying the continent? Can Brazil
play a role?
I. The Caribbean basin, an American and world interface:
Problematic: In what ways the Caribbean basin could be considered as an American and world interface?
A. The Caribbean basin, a fragmented space
Sources to use: political map of the Caribbean Basin (source: Santa Barbara geographical research center,
2013), regional organisations within the Carribean (Caribbean Atlas1, 2013), a difficult definition of
caribbeanness (Pearce, M. (2013)."Mapping Caribbeanness" in Cruse & Rhiney (Eds.), Caribbean Atlas,
http://www.atlas-caraibe.fr/themes/what-is-the-caribbean/mapping-caribbeanness.html.), Caribbean basin, a
complex identity (P. Buleon, Caribbean Atlas, 2013).
Source 1: Political map of the Caribbean Basin
Source: Santa Barbara geographical research center, 2013.
1
The Caribbean atlas is a result of a cooperation between several universities and research centers: University of the West Indies
(Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago), University of Curaçao, University Anton de Kom (Suriname), State University of Haiti,
University of Havana.
Chapter 2: The American continent: power in the North, affirmation in the South
Source 2: Economic organisations within the Caribbean Region:
Source: Caribbean Atlas, 2013.
Chapter 2: The American continent: power in the North, affirmation in the South
Source 3: A difficult definition of caribbeanness
When we pair the word “Caribbean” with the suffix “-ness” we kindle or conjure up a certain state or
condition. We summon to mind something that has a particular shape with its own contours, structure and
profile. Yet, what is it that we invoke? Can we picture it with any exactitude? Can we describe its features?
Can we map its topography? And can we restrict that map to a specific location? There is much to consider
in such a mapping exercise.
Stuart Hall reminds us that with the decimation of the indigenous peoples under the regime of colonialism,
“everybody in the Caribbean comes from somewhere else”. Hall adds that the “Caribbean is the first, the
original and the purest diaspora”. In conceiving our map we would therefore have to attempt to portray that
which has been fashioned from disparate components. Our map would need to take into account the splinters
of Africa, Europe, Asia and the Americas. It would have to seek to describe what Derek Walcott has called a
“shipwreck of fragments,” which he understands as “the basis of the Antillean experience”. The picture we
draw would have to be “textured” in order to delineate a shape composed of diverse layers; a shape that has
the richness of both pain and promise born of efforts to create syntheses from an array of bits and pieces.
[…]
Cartographic representations are most often visual establishments of a particular place or locus. […] The
place of Caribbeanness remains nebulous and unbounded. Caribbeanness defies an instinctive want to sketch
in boundary lines. […]
Source: M. Pearce, Mapping Caribbeanness" in Cruse & Rhiney (Eds.), Caribbean Atlas, 2013.
Source 4: Caribbean basin, a complex identity
From the coasts of the Yucatan for a distance of less than 200 km as far as Trinidad (itself little more than 10
km from the South American mainland) the Archipelago spreads over nearly 4,000 square km in an arc that
links the two American continents. The name Caribbean refers first and foremost to the sea of the same
name, an element of continuity round an otherwise fragmented terrestrial ensemble […]. The name
“Caribbean Sea” is indisputably steeped in history, it also describes a geographical entity. […] In both its
history and geography, the Caribbean at different times has appeared continuous/discontinuous,
single/multiple, large/small: its boundaries are not clear-cut, but when one searches for them, their reality
becomes obvious.
[…] The actual detail proves to be more complex than at first sight, as the arc-like archipelago is made up of
two distinct entities which, whilst communicating with each other, remain very separately identifiable. […]
Indeed, the islands, straits, sea passages between islands represent worlds as much different as one from the
other. Often all that remains from the metaphor as applied to the Mediterranean is the idea of “mare
clausum” and “mare nostrum” in relation to the United States, but adopting such a one dimensional
approach is too simplistic; the notion of ‘Mediterranean' with its accepted modern connotation becomes
more generally applicable if one adds to the idea of seas that are more or less closed, with their own
character and navigation routes, the element of contact between societies with different levels of living and
cultural systems. The sea, with its localized exchanges within basins, with circulation made up of “come and
go,” crisscrossing itineraries, ensures that constant level of contact.
The morphological originality of the region announces itself by the presence of three of the world's greatest
rivers feeding into the Caribbean basin, creating locally a clay-filled turbulence mixed into the waters of the
sea, and thence carried some distance away. Not surprisingly, the powerful sea currents generated by the
Amazon push this material furthest, skirting the coasts of the Guyanas and, together with those sediments
added by the Orinocco, deposit them off Trinidad. Mangrove has spread the whole length of the coast of the
South American continent. On the opposite, northern side of the basin, the building up of the Mississippi
delta has brought significant coastal gains of land over the sea. The coast of the Caribbean is thus
characterized by long bands of sand, or of mangroves broken by rocky coastal escarpments due to the
presence of volcanic and wave action.
[…] Political and economic changes in the 19th century provoked another transformation. As a regional
entity, the Caribbean started to grow away from Europe. Given its close proximity to the United States, it
would become […] its “backyard” […].
The whole zone appeared ready for the fragmentation of the contemporary era, with all its inherent
discontinuities: political, with the emergence of sometimes tiny states, thereby much more easily controlled
Chapter 2: The American continent: power in the North, affirmation in the South
by former metropolitan capitals, or by a powerful neighbour, and economic, because the small territories no
longer counted within large concert of nations. Today, the world of the Caribbean has ruptured and
fragmented into a multitude of political entities. The largest are found on the mainland or within the Greater
Antilles, however, in both cases, the disparities in size are always significant. Mexico is sixty times larger
than Salvador or Belize, while Cuba is one hundred times the size of Martinique, which is by no means the
smallest of the islands of the Lesser Antilles. It is often said today that the Caribbean has now become the
Carribeans.
Not surprisingly, the geography of language closely mirrors the region's eventful history. […]
To give colour, form and identity to the peoples of the Caribbean basin, some observers have wished to see
Creole as the language of regional unity. […] Creole, the language of the oral but not the written, used in the
harrowing context of slavery, has never been able to impose itself as the language of commercial
transaction. It remained merely a vernacular language.
In political and commercial relations, English incontestably dominates. It recalls the major British presence
of the last two centuries, but it is above all the shadow of American power that presents itself in the
international conferences and seminars in the hotels and airports, in the ‘offshore' financial transactions
(even in the case of Haiti or Cuba) and accompanied by dependence on the dollar, in the exchanges between
the islands and countries of meso-America.
Even so, the map manifests a large Spanish-speaking presence, from the far reaches of Trinidad to Puerto
Rico, including outliers in Florida where it competes almost on equal terms with English, thanks to the large
Cuban immigrant communities and refugees from the Dominican Republic. In Texas, Spanish “thumbs its
nose” at history, recalling that this state first belonged to the Viceroy, then republic of Mexico.
[…] The present language mosaic illustrates all the ambivalence in which the region evolved, which
orientated itself northwards in the hope of finding an economic Eldorado, but which remains strongly tied to
its colonial past, or to an identity which it now seeks to affirm.
The rapid development of transport from the second half of the 19th century, and particularly during the 20th,
would marginalize the Caribbean basin. […] The archipelago found itself excentric to the great flows of
goods and people, with political discontinuity becoming a serious handicap.
This marginalization, much more than in the past, has accentuated internal differences, contrasts and
oppositions. […]
The accumulation of four centuries of history has produced an interplay of relationships; of sizes and
geometries prevailing at certain periods; today a certain balance is in place, and is even reinforcing itself.
This is why it is not by default or by approximation that the boundaries of the Caribbean can be variously
defined: the Greater Antilles, linked in turn to the Lesser Antilles archipelago, fit into a first sea basin closed
off by the coasts of Venezuela, Panama, Yucatan and Florida, itself capable of integrating a much larger
basin by including the adjoining Gulf of Mexico as well as coastal Texas. To varying degrees, these entities
are all part of the Caribbean.
[…] Numerous factors push towards retreat and closure: standards of living, education and training, and
sometimes health; backwardness generally relative to the richest countries, marginalization and economic
dependency; regionalist and nationalist movements but at high cost for their populations.
A number of other factors can pull the Caribbean along a different trajectory. Fundamentally, it is from
within the region itself that solutions for sustainable development should produce synergies, and not
conflict. Close to the major centres by virtue of effective communications links, the region could promote
itself as an environment worth protecting in order to provide that natural habitat symbolically still viewed
with fascination by wealthier societies in search of exoticism; an environment too which offers the much
sought-after spaces for work adapted to the demands of our time. […]
Source: P. Buleon, Caribbean Atlas, 2013.
Source 5: HDI in 2005:
Chapter 2: The American continent: power in the North, affirmation in the South
Source: Caribbean Atlas, 2013.
Questions:
1. Using the HDI map, prove that the Caribbean Basin is composed of MDCs and LDCs as well.
The Caribbean basin is composed of countries both from LDCs and MDCs. First, some territories belong to
the Triad in so far as the USA, with Florida especially, is a part of the Triad and the world superpower
whatever its weaknesses can be. Moreover, some territories such as Guadeloupe, Martinique belongs to the
European Union and as it, are a part of the second pole of the Triad.
The traditional North / South division separates the USA from the rest of the Caribbean Basin. It is
obviously too simplistic and does not account for the variety of the situations. All the shades of development
are concentrated in the Caribbean Basin.
Developed countries and territories
The USA is obviously a developed country.
Territories under US or European rule are also developed. But national statistics tend to blur differences
between the islands and the mainland, as in the case of Puerto Rico.
Developing countries
Most of the Caribbean countries are developing. Their HDI is between 0.5 and 0.8. They enjoy significant
economic growth. But that category is very wide and can be further subcategorized:
Some developing countries, like Trinidad2, are integrated to globalization, richer and more developed.
Other developing countries, like Colombia3, are in an intermediate situation. They are less industrialized and
their global integration is more recent. Political instability has often hampered development until recently.
One least developed country: Haiti
Haiti is an exception in America. It’s the only Least Developed Country of the continent. Its HDI is below
0.5 and shows only little sign of improvement. A lot of people have left Haiti and the remittances are very
2
Its oil reserves are a specific asset that was used to develop an oil-refining industry. But it also bases its development on more
classic economic sectors for the Caribbean: tourism and tropical agriculture.
Migrations reflect the complexity of Trinidadian development: immigration from nearby Venezuela and Guyana is high. But
there’s a significant emigration of skilled workers (brain drain) to the US.
3
The Colombian development strategy
Colombia uses typical Caribbean assets: tropical climate, endless beaches and beautiful natural landscapes, taundant low-wage
labor, and proximity to the US consumer market
The result is a classic mix of: Exotic agricultural production: Columbian coffee has favorable natural conditions, low production
costs and is sold on the US market; Light industrial production: The Colombian textile industry uses low-wage, low-skill labor as
an asset. But it faces stiff competition from developing Asian nations with similar strategies; Tourism: Cartagena has become a
major tourist attraction. It’s a cruise stop and a beach resort like many others in the Caribbean but the colonial city has also
generated more original culture tourism.
Chapter 2: The American continent: power in the North, affirmation in the South
important but in the meantime, the level of FDI is low, the vulnerability to natural hazards very high,
especially hurricanes and earthquakes.
In the 1990s, the USA and the IMF (International Monetary Fund) imposed classic liberal policies on Haiti.
Public spending was cut and tariffs were dramatically reduced. The economic consequences were harsh:
competition from imported goods drove many Haitian farmers and manufacturers out of business.
Unemployment rose. Rice, a national staple production, was replaced with US imports and Haiti became
dependent on the price of rice in the global market. Its rise in the 2000s led to more social and political
unrest, which hampered development. The 2010 earthquake dealt the last blow to the Haitian liberal
development strategy
2. Could you find common point between the countries from the Caribbean Basin (history, geography,
political and economic organisations, …) or is the Caribbean basin a fragmented space?
The only common point really visible between the countries from the Caribbean Basin is history and the fact
that they are all linked to the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. Indeed, all these countries, at one time
or another from their history were colonies from a European country, mainly Spain, France and England.
Many attempts for creating a common economic organisation were made but actually they were several
from CARICOM (Caribbean Community and Common Market), OESC (Organisation of Eastern Caribbean
States, SICA (Central American integration System), ACS (Association of Caribbean States), NAFTA
(North Atlantic Free trade Agreement), … None of them completely integrate all the Caribbean states except
the ACS but its powers and means of action are weak. Moreover, the Islands are also a part of AOSIS
(Alliance of Small Islands States) which group 49 small islands all over the world which try to be recognised
for their problems and characteristics.
So we can say that geographically, politically and economically speaking, whatever the common Caribbean
culture, the Caribbean basin is a fragmented space.
3. Define what the Caribbean Basin is (geography, identity, …).
The Caribbean Basin is a peculiar region:
- Its landmass is half mainland, half islands.
- It’s closed and open at the same time.
- It’s Atlantic, but opened to the Pacific.
- It used to be under European control and is now under US influence but Brazil is vying for more
power in the region.
- Most of the countries belong to the LDCs but it’s closely linked to the MDCs
The Caribbean basin can only be considered as a fragmented space geographically speaking because of the
large number of Islands and Islets composing a part of its organisation and because of the differences from
size, population, power and development between the countries belonging to it. However some elements can
be considered as keys to define what the Caribbean Basin is: two seas, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of
Mexico because only territories connected to them can be considered a part of the Caribbean Basin.
Moreover, it’s history and identity which define the best what the Caribbean Basin is. Indeed, all the
countries from that region where colonised by European powers: France, England and Spain for the most
important.
B. An American interface between North and Latin America
Sources to use: Caribbean basin in the international air transport (Caribbean Atlas, 2013), EEZ according to
Montego Bay convention in 1982 (Caribbean Atlas, 2013), Fiscal Havens and illicit trading (Caribbean
Atlas, 2013), Maritime boundaries and disputes (Caribbean Atlas, 2013), Migrations in the Caribbean basin
1960-2010 (Caribbean Atlas, 2013).
Chapter 2: The American continent: power in the North, affirmation in the South
Source 1: Caribbean basin in the international air transport
Source: Caribbean Atlas, 2013.
Source 2: EEZ according to Montego Bay convention in 1982
Source: Caribbean Atlas, 2013.
Source 3: Fiscal Havens and illicit trading:
Chapter 2: The American continent: power in the North, affirmation in the South
Source: Caribbean Atlas, 2013.
Source 4: Maritime boundaries and disputes:
Source: Caribbean Atlas, 2013.
Source 5: Migrations in the Caribbean basin 1960-2010
Chapter 2: The American continent: power in the North, affirmation in the South
Source: Caribbean Atlas, 2013.
Questions:
1. Could you identify the main historical and geopolitical influences the Caribbean Basin had to face
through history?
The Caribbean Basin was the cradle of European colonization in America. That’s where Christopher
Columbus first arrived after he crossed the Atlantic in 1492. That’s the region where Europeans
concentrated their first colonization efforts. Spain took possession of the largest islands and almost the entire
mainland. But England, France and the Netherlands also had their share.
Most European colonies achieved independence in the 19th or 20th centuries. But cultural, political and
economic connections with Europe remained strong. And some islands still are under European rule today.
The USA has replaced Europe as the major foreign influence in the region. The Caribbean is often referred
to as the “backyard of the USA”: a region where the US influence is unchallenged to the point that it’s
almost become an extension of the USA itself (which it literally is in the case of Puerto Rico and the US
Virgin Islands). The US military policy in the Caribbean is a good illustration. The US promoted military
cooperation: the School of the Americas, in Panama during the Cold War, was a US-run and staffed military
school which taught Latin-American officers anti-communist tactics. The numerous US military
interventions in the Caribbean are concrete examples of the “big stick policy” formulated by President
Theodore Roosevelt in the very beginning of the 20th century. Haiti is a good example of how that policy
worked, and still does.
The Caribbean also has historical links to the rest of South America. Many countries used to be Spanish
colonies. They still share the same language and culture. Brazil, a former Portuguese colony, also has a
growing interest for the region. The Brazilian army leads the current UN mission in Haiti and Brazilian
soldiers account for more than a quarter of total UN troops in Haiti.
The Caribbean is in a unique position in the global world. It has very strong links to two of the three poles of
the world oligopoly (Europe and the USA). It is also connected to a dynamic region: South America,
including emerging Brazil. However, due to the presence of territories belonging to European countries, the
European Union had also a major role.
2. Prove that flows cross the Caribbean basin, making it a very important interface on the American
continent.
All the flows in the Caribbean are outward-oriented: flows are more intense between the Caribbean and
other regions of the world than inside the Caribbean Basin itself. This is true for trade and financial flows as
it is for migration flows.
Polarized flows
The USA strongly polarizes these flows. Europe is also a significant pole but not to the same level as the
USA. Asia and South America are not insignificant but they can’t compare to the attraction that the USA
and Europe exert.
Chapter 2: The American continent: power in the North, affirmation in the South
Unequal flows
The flows are not just polarized, they’re also unequal: the nature of the flows is completely different
depending on whether they are inbound or outbound.
Trade flows
Trade flows are unequal. The Caribbean exports are mostly made of exotic agricultural products (e.g.
Colombian coffee), raw minerals and energy sources (e.g. Trinidadian crude oil), simple industrial
productions (e.g. Colombian textile) and sometimes more complex productions (e.g. Trinidadian refined
oil). The Caribbean imports are mostly made of energy sources (e.g. Middle-Eastern oil), agricultural
products (e.g. US meat), heavy industrial products (e.g. US industrial machines) and high-tech products (e.g.
US computers). To sum it up, the Caribbean exports are mostly unprocessed and low-value while its imports
are mostly processed, technical and high-value.
Financial flows
Financial flows are unequal too. Inbound flows are mostly made of the remittances sent home by the
emigrants and the foreign direct investment made by TNCs. Remittances have become a major source of
revenue for many nations, while FDIs have been overall stagnant in the last decade. Some dynamic open
economies, like Trinidad or Columbia, have successfully attracted FDIs.
Migration flows
Migrations flows are also unequal. Inbound flows are mostly short-term migrations of tourists from the USA
and secondarily Europe. Outbound migrations are mostly long-term migrations of people going North or
over the Atlantic in search of a better life. They are the ones who generate the remittances that we talked
about.
C. A world interface linked to the former colonial powers
Sources to use: sources from the previous paragraph and Caribbean international sea ports (Caribbean Atlas,
2013), Tourism 2006-2007 (Caribbean Atlas, 2013), US backyard (Caribbean Atlas, 2013), The EU’s
presence in the Caribbean Basin in 2007 (Caribbean Atlas, 2013).
Source 1: Caribbean international sea ports
Source: Caribbean Atlas, 2013.
Chapter 2: The American continent: power in the North, affirmation in the South
Source 2: Tourism 2006-2007
Source: Caribbean Atlas, 2013.
Source 3: US backyard
Source: Caribbean Atlas, 2013.
Source 4: The EU’s presence in the Caribbean Basin in 2007.
Chapter 2: The American continent: power in the North, affirmation in the South
Source: Caribbean Atlas, 2013.
Questions:
1. Prove that the Caribbean Basin in a major pole for the transport of merchandises in the world.
Some major cargo ports are located in the Caribbean Basin. They usually have container terminals that are
modern and busy.
The ports are modern. They have large deepwater berths where the largest ships can dock. Tall container
cranes move the containers between land and sea. The terminals are so wide you can pile up huge amounts
of containers. On the mainland and large islands, roads and railroads facilitate the connection with the
hinterland.
The ports are busy. Half a dozen of them handled traffics superior to 2 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent
unit) in 2010. Among those, the port of Colon in Panama, is the busiest: it sits at the entry of the Panama
Canal which links the two major world oceans, the Atlantic and the Pacific. It’s a major transshipment port:
containers are moved from an arriving ship onto the terminal. They are then moved back onto a departing
ship to their final destination. The port of Miami, Florida, in the USA and the port of San Juan, Puerto Rico
are major regional ports as well. There are also a large number of smaller ports that are especially crucial to
small islands as they connect them to the world.
The cruise ports are also modern and busy. The terminals are just as large as the container terminals. They
can accommodate giant cruise ships and the huge traffic they generate. Miami cruise port has 7 terminals
and traffic of 4 million passengers in 2012. Some of the ships that operate in the port can take more than
3,500 passengers on board!
The Caribbean Basin has a large number of cruise ports of every size and shape. Cartagena in Columbia is
another example, among many others. They generate intense cruise flows.
2. Prove that the Caribbean Basin is well integrated in the world aerial traffic.
The airports of the region are just as modern and busy as the seaports.
Chapter 2: The American continent: power in the North, affirmation in the South
The airports have several runways for planes to land and take-off. They have large, modern terminals with
many gates that allow the operation of many planes at the same time. This is especially important for hub
airports.
What is a hub airport?
A hub airport is an airport designed and organized to facilitate the transfers of passengers from one plane to
another plane.
Hubs work with connecting banks. Many planes arrive in the same 60-80 minute period of time: passengers
deplane and enter the terminals. Then plane movements stop for a good half hour to allow for connecting
passengers to reach their new gates. Finally, all the planes take off in the following 60-80 minutes with new
passengers on board. Large hubs have several connecting banks during the day.
There are two true hubs in the Caribbean Basin: Miami and Panama airports. Bogota airport is the Latin
American airport that has the busiest cargo activity. It’s mainly due to the shipping of cut flowers to the US
market. The Colombian cut flower industry has experienced an impressive boom in the last 20 years.
Flowers are usually sent to Miami. They make up about 40% of the cargo handled at Miami airport. In fact
the airport handles over 85% of US flower imports. Miami is by far the largest hub in the Caribbean Basin,
around the operations of American Airlines (AA). AA has direct non-stop routes to most Caribbean and
Central American airports. It efficiently connects the Caribbean Basin to North America and to Europe. AA
hub in Miami has progressively replaced its hub in San Juan, Puerto Rico, which was just recently closed.
There are many other airports in the Caribbean Basin. They are usually not hubs but spokes and they play a
vital role in the local economies, especially for island countries. Port-of-Spain airport is one of those. The
national Trinidadian company is trying to turn it into a hub airport but it takes time and patience.
Airports are mostly for passengers but they can also handle freight. As air transport is expensive, volumes
are usually small but value is high: high-tech spare parts, biological products or fresh and perishable
agricultural products can’t use the cheaper but longer maritime transportation. Some Caribbean Basin
airports are specialized in such traffic, like Bogota airport.
Modern, efficient airports are busy with activity in the Caribbean Basin. They are essential elements to the
regional unity and they connect the region to the rest of the world.
3. Prove that the Caribbean Basin is a corridor for international migrations.
Migrations flows are also unequal. Inbound flows are mostly short-term migrations of tourists from the USA
and secondarily Europe. Outbound migrations are mostly long-term migrations of people going North or
over the Atlantic in search of a better life. They are the ones who generate the remittances that we talked
about.
The Caribbean is one of the most important corridors for international migrations. Indeed, the Caribbean
Basin is marked by international migrations for political reasons: the Cubans left Cuba to the USA,
especially Florida because of the dictatorship from Fidel Castro.
Moreover, people from Central America, through the Mexican American border migrate to the USA – this
border is the second international migratory corridor in the world.
For Haiti, the migratory flows are also very important. Migrations flows are mostly outgoing. Massive
emigration has long been used as a solution to poverty, instability and natural disasters. This led to the
creation of a Haitian diaspora. Its main centers are the USA and the Dominican Republic, with over 1
million Haitian-origin persons in each. Canada and France also have significant Haitian communities.
4. Prove that the Caribbean Basin is integrated to the world financial exchanges.
The banks in the Caribbean Basin are also powerful and busy.
Miami stands out as the leading financial capital. Its impressive downtown concentrates powerful financial
institutions that serve as the banks of Latin America. Other significant financial centers in the Caribbean
Basin are mostly tax havens: Panama as a country is one of them. Its secretive banking system and its taxfree policies attract capitals from the entire region.
Powerful financial institutions are required to handle large financial flows: direct foreign investments
usually represent between 20 and 30% of the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of most countries in the
region.