U.S. Pushes E-commerce in Latin America

Oct. 9 -- In the Clinton administration’s final months, the Commerce Department has been working to promote in Latin America the United States’ recipe for greater prosperity through the Internet digital economy.

At the urging of U.S. tech companies, the trade-promoting agency is aggressively selling the Internet as a means for developing countries, Latin American ones in particular, to achieve the kind of economic boom the United States has enjoyed in recent years.

It’s part of the department’s “E-Exports Initiative,” and it involves extensive government-to-government and government-to-business dialogue, a Spanish-language site designed to link U.S. and Latin countries, and seminars designed to show small- to medium-sized companies how to conduct e-business and explain why they should.

The effort reflects a growing idea among U.S. and Latin American leaders and businesses that the Internet can bring significant, positive change to regional economies.

“What we’re trying to do is be there and work with them as they develop,” says Robert LaRussa, undersecretary of commerce for international trade.

“We think that in order to keep that growth in the United States, we’ve got to spread the wealth, so to speak,” he adds.

Spreading the Wealth

The Latin e-commerce market currently is tiny compared to, say, the tens to hundreds of billions of dollars in the U.S. market. Online purchasing by Latin American consumers was only $194 million in 1999 and business-to-business sales were $1.9 billion, according to the Commerce Department. But industry analysts think it could grow to as high as $8.3 billion by 2005.

Latin American growth in personal computer penetration and Internet usage is said to be the world’s fastest. The total number of users is projected to nearly triple, from between 12 million and 16 million in 2000 to 43.4 million in 2003, according to the Internet research firm Jupiter Communications.