A comparative study of foreign economic policies: the CIVETS countries

Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey, and South Africa (CIVETS) have shaped their foreign economic policies in line with the Washington Consensus and have implemented strategies to attract foreign investment as a possible way out of the current financial crisis. Once multilateral trade rules were agreed under the WTO, these countries revised their domestic trade policies in order to cope with both the organisational principles and the international investment standards promoted by international financial institutions. Despite the fact that transnational economic groups have been focussing their attention on these ‘new investment miracles’ since the coining of the term CIVETS in 2009, the CIVETS governments have shown no interest in coordinating their foreign economic policies on investment issues. In this paper we argue that the emerging economies of CIVETS exemplify a case of unintended foreign economic policy convergence, facilitated by systemic causes. These include their common need to overcome historic processes of adverse economic transition while getting inserted successfully into world trade; as well as domestic variables like the similar ideas of CIVETS policy makers.