Murguía Caribbean Basin Initiative Launched by U.S.. president Ronald Reagan in 1983, the Caribbean Basin Initiative CBI built on the legacy of the Alliance for Progress 1961–69 to fost
Trang 1decades the Canadian film market was dominated by
the American film industry, but then Canadians
devel-oped a vigorous film industry that produced a variety of
well-known films, actors, and directors
Canada’s film industry is in full expansion as a site
for Hollywood productions The series The X-Files was
famously shot in Vancouver, as was Stargate, the 2003
version of Battlestar Galactica, and The Outer
Lim-its The American series Queer as Folk was filmed in
Toronto After the 1980s Canada—and Vancouver in
particular—became known as Hollywood North
Canadian literature shows a mixture of French
and Anglo-Saxon trends After the mid-20th century
there were many advances in literature, mainly since
the 1980s But before those years Canada’s literature
also had some important authors Whether written in
English or French, Canadian literature reflects three
main parts of the Canadian experience: nature and the
relation with the sea, frontier life, and Canada’s position
in the world
Further reading: Bothwell, Robert, Ian Drummond, and
John English Canada Since 1945 Toronto: University of
Toronto Press, 1989; Morton, Desmond A Short History of
Canada Edmonton: Hurtig, 1983; Norrie, Kenneth, Douglas
Owram, and J C Herbert Emery A History of the Canadian
Economy Toronto: Thomson-Nelson, 2002; Wallace, Iain
A Geography of the Canadian Economy Don Mills: Oxford
University Press, 2002
Diego I Murguía
Caribbean Basin Initiative
Launched by U.S president Ronald Reagan in 1983,
the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) built on the legacy
of the Alliance for Progress (1961–69) to foster free
trade, open markets, economic growth, and export
diver-sification throughout the circum-Caribbean, including
Central America
Formally called the Caribbean Basin Economic
Recovery Act (CBERA), and going into effect on
Janu-ary 1, 1984, the program was made permanent in the
Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Expansion Act
(CBI II) in 1990 and was expanded substantially in
2000 under President Bill Clinton in the Caribbean
Basin Trade Partnership Act (CBTPA) The CBTPA, set
to expire in 2008, includes 24 countries in a regional
trading bloc akin to that created by the North
Amer-ican Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Measured in
terms of the dollar values of goods exchanged, the ini-tiative has proven successful In 2004 the total value
of CBI exports to the United States more than tripled from 1984, reaching $27.8 billion, while U.S exports
to CBI countries reached $24.5 billion, 1.6 percent of total U.S exports, making the CBI region the eighth largest recipient of U.S exports
The CBI was launched during a period of escalat-ing tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union, when the U.S foreign policy establishment was deeply concerned with the growth of leftist and revolu-tionary movements in Central America and the Carib-bean By 1983 the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua was entering its fourth year; the leftist FDR-FMLN political and guerrilla movements in El Salvador posed
a serious challenge to that country’s U.S.-supported government; and the Guatemalan military’s U.S.-sup-ported war against several guerrilla groups and geno-cidal campaign against the country’s indigenous peoples had already peaked
The October 1983 U.S invasion of Grenada to oust that country’s anti-imperialist, Marxist-oriented gov-ernment further underscored the geopolitical concerns
of U.S foreign policymakers The CBI, which excluded Nicaragua until the Sandinista electoral defeat in 1990, was thus similar to Kennedy’s Alliance for Progress
in its goal of weakening Soviet and Cuban influence, preventing leftist movements and governments from expanding their power, and tightening the economic integration between the United States and the nation-states of its historic “backyard.”
Scholarly interpretations of the CBI’s economic and social impact vary widely All observers agree that the CBI has expanded trade and promoted economic growth, but disagree over whether that growth has fos-tered sustainable economic development, diminished inequalities, alleviated poverty, or enhanced the social well-being of the majority Critics charge that the CBI’s export-led model of growth has done little to improve living standards and has perpetuated structural inequal-ities within CBI member countries and between them and the United States
The CBI’s supporters argue that economic growth remains the sine qua non of poverty alleviation and improved social conditions While it is difficult to disaggregate the effects of CBI-induced economic changes from other factors, the evidence indicates that poverty rates, socioeconomic differentiation, and indices of social well-being in most CBI countries have seen marginal improvements at best since 1984 All observers agree that the CBI and related U.S laws
Caribbean Basin Initiative