St. John’s Antigua- A new study by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Institute has described the potential for greater trade, investment and cooperation between Asia-Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean.

This, as their two-way trade edges toward the half-trillion-dollar mark.

The study said the time is right to deepen cooperation so as to ensure future growth and prosperity.

It added that fast-growing trade and investment between these two “dynamic regions” have transformed them into “powerful motors for the world economy” with two-way trade hitting 442 billion US dollars last year.

The Washington-based IDB noted that trade between the regions has largely followed a pattern of Latin American and Caribbean commodities for Asian manufactured goods.