Trade Costs: Venezuela Worst

Special Reports     12:00 AM
Monday, September 15, 2008
Trade Costs: Venezuela Worst

WORST: Venezuela — here represented by its largest port, Puerto Cabello — has Latin America’s worst climate for exporters and importers, according to the World Bank. (Photo: IAFE)

Panama, the Dominican Republic and Chile have the best overall trade climate, while Venezuela and Haiti have the worst.
BY CHRONICLE STAFF

Venezuela has replaced Mexico as the most expensive country in Latin America to import to. It already was the most expensive when it came to exports, according to a Latin Business Chronicle analysis of new data from The World Bank.

Venezuela’s overall trade regime is now worse than countries like Eritrea, Zimbabwe and the Republic of Congo (which is the worst country  in Sub-Sahara Africa).

Meanwhile, Panama has replaced El Salvador as the least-expensive country in Latin America to export from, while Chile has replaced El Salvador as the least-expensive country to import to. Panama remains Latin America’s leader when it comes to the overall environment for exporting and importing containerized goods, while Venezuela is the worst country, according to our analysis of the bank’s Doing business survey for 2009.