Gustavo Rojas is a Visiting Research Fellow at UNU-CRIS.
Gustavo Rojas de Cerqueira César is currently an Associate Researcher at the Center for Analysis and Dissemination of the Paraguayan Economy (CADEP, Paraguay) and an Associate Researcher at the Center for Science for Latin American Integration (CCIL), Memorial of Latin America – São Paulo State University (UNESP, Brazil). He holds a Master's degree in International Economic Relations and International Relations and Negotiations from the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO, Argentina) and the University of Barcelona (Spain), as well as a Bachelor's degree in International Relations from the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais (Brazil). He is currently pursuing a Master's in International Development at SOAS University of London (UK). He has worked as a Social Protection Officer at the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Paraguay, as a Research Fellow at the Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPEA) of the Government of Brazil, and as an Economic Sector Advisor at the Embassy of Brazil in Buenos Aires (Argentina). He has also served as a Guest Lecturer at the Catholic University Nuestra Señora de la Asunción (Paraguay) and as an Adjunct Professor at the Universidad de Belgrano (Argentina). He has conducted internationally funded research projects for institutions including the IDB, CAF, UNDP, IIPE-UNESCO, the European Union, the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP), and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. He is a member of the Reference Group for the Strategic and Technical Guidance of Paraguay's National International Cooperation Strategy 2025–2028, coordinated by the Ministries of Economy & Finance and Foreign Affairs, and a recipient of the U.S. Department of State's International Visitor Leadership Program (Global Economic Cooperation, 2021).
His main research focus is the international political economy of regional integration and trade, with particular emphasis on MERCOSUR — its institutional architecture, trade negotiations, and evolving relationships with external partners including the European Union, China and India. His work also covers investment policy, productive integration in landlocked developing economies, and the intersections between trade agreements and development. His regional focus is Latin America, with a special emphasis on Paraguay's insertion into the global economy. His academic work has been published in journals such as the Revista Mercosur de Políticas Sociales, Boletim de Economia e Política Internacional (IPEA), Revista Brasileira de Comércio Exterior, Columbia FDI Perspectives, and PONTES: Informações e análises sobre comércio e desenvolvimento, among others. He has authored policy reports and working papers for international organizations and think tanks and contributed chapters to edited volumes published by the IDB, Friedrich Ebert Foundation, and FLACSO. He co-authored the book La Inserción Internacional del Paraguay en Democracia (El Lector, 2019).
During his visiting research fellowship at UNU-CRIS, he will work in close collaboration with researchers in UNU-CRIS's Economic Interactions Cluster on projects including the implications of the EU–MERCOSUR Association Agreement for the public sector capacities of MERCOSUR member states; Paraguay's trade and investment integration within regional and global value chains; trade and financial relations between China and Latin America; and contributing to the training and capacity-building initiatives linked to this issues.