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Mitt Romney says Latin America’s Economy is "Almost as Big" as the Economy of China 

AS/COA’s Eric Farnsworth comments on Governor Mitt Romney’s statement rating Latin America’s economy almost as large as the economy of China during the final presidential debate. 

During the third presidential debate in Boca Raton, Fla., Mitt Romney touted Latin America as a region that’s ripe for expanding trade with the United States.

"Trade grows about 12 percent year," Romney said. "It doubles about five or so years. We can do better than that, particularly in Latin America. The opportunities for us in Latin America, we have just not taken advantage (of them) of fully. As a matter of fact, Latin America’s economy is almost as big as the economy of China. We’re all focused on China. Latin America is a huge opportunity for us — time zone, language opportunities."

We won’t judge whether Latin America is a "huge opportunity" for the U.S., but we were curious whether it’s true that "Latin America’s economy is almost as big as the economy of China…"
Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Council of the Americas and an aide in the White House Office of the Special Envoy for the Americas under President Bill Clinton, said you can’t close the gap between Latin America and China without broadening the definition to "the Americas" by adding Canada, something we don’t think was suggested by Romney’s claim. But even then, the combination of Latin America and Canada still wouldn't get you to the GDP level of China…

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