Tratados de libre comercio y mercados regionales de trabajo. : MERCOSUR y la agricultura tradicional en Chile

Authors

  • Antonio Daher Hechem Instituto de Estudios Urbanos, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

Abstract

The aggregate employment balances in the evaluation of trade agreements hide sectoral and regional imbalances, as will happen due to the effect of MERCOSUR in traditional agriculture and the south-central regions of Chile, where between 50 and 70 thousand direct jobs will be reduced. This labor impact in four contiguous regions, which represent a large part of the agricultural and forestry product and the sector's workforce, will critically exacerbate rural poverty and indigence. To the quantitative reduction of jobs must be added a qualitative change in the structure of occupational categories related to the reconversion of traditional peasant agriculture into a modern and entrepreneurial one. This will affect regional labor markets, defined not only territorially, but also by a subsectorial specialization, occupational categories and specific labor relations, and by their own social and cultural sphere.

Keywords:

Traditional Agriculture, Chile, Free Trade Agreements, Regional Labor Markets, MERCOSUR

Author Biography

Antonio Daher Hechem, Instituto de Estudios Urbanos, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

Magister en planificación urbana y regional, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile; profesor e investigador del Instituto de Estudios Urbanos de esta Universidad;  miembro de la Sociedad Interamericana de Planificación y de la Asociación Española de Ciencia Regional; faculty associated, Lincoln Institute, Cambridge;  ha sido profesor invitado, conferencista y consultor en diversos países latinoamericanos;  en Chile se ha desempeñado como consultor del Comité Interministerial de Infraestructura, de los Ministerios del Interior (SUBDERE) y de la Vivienda y Urbanismo; del Consejo Superior de Educación; de ILPES-CEPAL y del Programa de Gestión Ambiental de Naciones Unidas; autor de diversas publicaciones en libros y revistas científicas en Inglaterra, España, Estados Unidos y Latinoamerica.