In spite of these notes of caution, the paper's results are relevant for Latin American ports, the policy-makers, and for researchers. The work leaves an important set of matters to be investigated in the future, such as the depth of efficiency measures for large sets of ports; the consequences over the LAC international trade, competitiveness and regional integration processes, the institutional and economic determinants of port efficiency, the regulatory implications, and the influence of inland-port connection over the waterborne transport costs.