With almost 40% of all its trade taking place in North America, Panama has built a reputation of being incredibly business-friendly, making it almost a no-brainer for businesses looking to expand geographically across the region.

As a country with a diversified portfolio of trading partners, Costa Rica exchanges good across the globe. When it comes to imports, consumer as well as capital goods take the center stage, focusing on raw materials for industry, mining and transportation.

Recognized as the world’s second largest exporter of avocados and main supplier to Europe, Peru boasts a vast array of opportunities for local exporters to reach new markets. Improvements in its international supply capabilities coupled with a strong scope of top trading partners including US and China make exporting in Peru an attractive venue.

While spending a higher proportion on private research and development relative to its GDP than any other country in the world, Israel’s open and flexible economy can be an attractive destiny for businesses across all industries.

Post pandemic efforts to generate a more resilient economic rebound are still showing positive feedback as a sharp rebound of 5.5% growth for 2021 is forecasted.

With an estimated GDP of over $325bn, Colombia is currently the fourth largest economy in Latin America. Although it is still a commodity-based exporter, over the last decade, deliberate government efforts to shift from an oil exporter only, along with other commodities, to a more diverse scope of products/services.

Even though exports reached their lowest in a decade in 2020 due to the pandemic, Israeli firms are set to claim its strong market position back and electrical/electronic equipment products have the highest leverage in terms of adoption and access.

With a longstanding relationship of deep economic ties, United States stands as Argentina’s third most important trading partner of goods & services, with trade volume amounting to more than $16bn in 2020. 

As of 2021, even though Brazil is still primarily an exporter of commodities such as soybeans (11.6% of total export volume), petroleum oils (10.7%) and iron ores (10.1%), nearly half of its population are now internet users and their eagerness to adopt new technologies, make it a particularly attractive place for international online retailers, fashion & accessories companies and electronic appliances providers all over the world.

Since 2019, having dethroned China, Mexico is the US’ top trading partner with 14.7% of total trade while the top 3 main US trading partners, along with Canada and China, still represent over 40% of the overall trading activity of the United States of America. Rising freight costs and the need to diversify supply chains were some of the main factors influencing the shift towards US closest neighbors.

Mitigating supply chain risk is a leading concern among global business leaders today and one that needs to be addressed on a larger scale. While 76 percent of business leaders consider operations risk management as important or very important to addressing supply chain risk issues, only 37 percent of non-leading companies make risk management a strategic imperative according to Accenture’s recent Global Operations Megatrends study. READ MORE