This from Taipan’s Emerging Markets blog:

Members of APEC, Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation, ended their annual summits today in Lima, Peru. One of the main topics, besides the economic crisis, was free trade.

(By the way, APEC consists of member economies like China, Vietnam, the U.S., Canada, Russia, Peru, and Chile, among others.)

Free trade is a hot topic right now, with the dreaded “P” word floating about: protectionism. Protectionism is when governments restrict or restrain international trade. Most times the intent is to protect local markets from competition.

Like if the U.S. government says a tomato farmer in Mexico can no longer export his product to the States because its so much cheaper compared to an American farmer’s product.

The 21 leaders meeting in Lima have agreed to “avoid protectionist measures and keep trade free despite the economic climate,” reports the BBC. The members signed a final declaration backing free trade on Monday.

Free trade is only part of the equation, though, and governments have also agreed to support economic stimulus plans that will boost spending.

In fact, the APEC member governments are spending hundreds of billions of dollars on ways to stop the economic crisis, says the International Herald Tribune. Not all the cards are on the table, though, and there hasn’t been a clear-cut plan held up for the public’s eye. Not yet, anyway.

One thing is for sure… There will be a lot of international cooperation to spur investment and partner economies. For example, 40% of Chile’s exports went to the Asia-Pacific region in 2007. Mostly to China.

It’s no surprise that Chile was the first non-Asian country to sign a free trade agreement with China back in 2005. And China just last week signed an FTA with Peru.

These FTAs allow for easier, cheaper trade, which may ultimately keep some of these countries out of a recession.

By the way, we’ve just gotten a GDP report from Chile’s Central Bank. For the first nine months of 2008, Chile’s GDP growth rate was a brisk 4.2%. Now, that’s down from last year’s figure (at 4.7%), but still pretty darn good.

Next year, the country expects a bit of contraction, and only 2% to 3% growth, but that’s good enough to keep Chile out of a recession next year.

That’s also good enough to keep Chilean businesses fairly healthy.

Source: Investing in Latin America: Global Crisis Buffer

This from Taipan Publishing’s emerging markets blog:

As climate change and energy independence have headlined a number of events during the past two years of presidential campaigning, I’m happy to see alternative energy back in the investment ring.

Surprisingly, many top-notch European companies see the U.S. as a major growth region for the renewable energy business, and they are coming over in droves to set up shop.

Let’s take a look at just one of the technologies that’s already being employed around the world: wind power.

The U.S. is in bad shape compared to the rest of the world. Some of the world’s leaders in wind power, like Spain, Denmark and Germany, generate a significant percentage of electricity from wind. But even countries like Morocco and India generate a larger percentage of electricity from wind than the U.S.

Morroco gets 1.7% of its electricty from wind. India? 4.6%.

The U.S. gets 1.37% from wind, and that’s after record growth last year that saw 3,100 new turbines built in 34 different states.

Now listen to this: The Department of Energy released a 248-page report that shows how the U.S. can generates as much as 20% of its electricity from wind power alone… by 2030. Do the math and you’ve got a 1,360% increase from currend wind generation.

That means an additional 7,000 turbines a year will need to be installed over the next nine years if we want to meet this goal.

Guess what? That type of demand won’t be met by U.S. companies. General Electric (NYSE:GE) is already committed for the next few years with T. Boone Pickens’ wind farm planned for Texas.

No, folks… This demand will have to be met by international companies… Companies that have climbed amazingly quickly over the past two and a half years. In fact, seven different international companies have more than doubled since 2005.

(Note: That doesn’t include the global meltdown the world’s experienced over the past couple months.)

And many of these companies already have operations here in the U.S. and are looking to expand, sometimes into old manufacturing plants.

Like Spanish company Acciona SA (MCE:ANA) who plopped a wind turbine manufacturing plant in an old pump factory in West Branch, Iowa…

These investments have sparkes a wealth of more factories, like the small company that occupies an old Maytag factory making concrete towers to support wind turbines while TPI Composites built a brand new plant across the street and promised to hire 500 employees.

It’s revitalizing old manufacturing towns in what’s called “The Rust Belt.” These are places who saw manufacturing plants uprooted and moved overseas, or just closed down completely.

It’s a very interesting area for investors.

No matter what you think of either candidate for president, both have promised to curb our dependence on foreign oil and build jobs here at home. Both have promised more alternative energy investments.

Seems like a win-win for both investors and many of those European companies coming to the U.S. and building turbine plants.

Source: Green Investing: The New Industrial Revolution