MERCOSUR sets Stage for
Presidential Summit
Nation members of the
Market of the South (MERCOSUR)
give the final touches
to a Presidential summit
with an agenda focused
on the challenges posed
by integration, to be
held in this capital.
The meeting will be
attended by presidents
Nestor Kirchner of
Argentina, Luiz Inacio
Lula da Silva of Brazil,
Uruguay´s Tabare Vazquez
and the host Nicanor
Duarte.
To the former list will
be added Michelle
Bachelet, of Chile, Evo
Morales of Bolivia,
Rafael Correa of Ecuador
and Alan Garcia of Peru,
while the Venezuelan
head of state Hugo
Chavez will be absent
due to a tight
international agenda.
As part of the preps,
the experts mentioned
the importance of
discussing the issue of
the so-called economic
asymmetries, in an
effort to close ranks
among bloc members.
For analysts, MERCOSUR
faces the challenge of
driving forward an
integration scheme that
takes into account
social aspects as chief
priority under the
current international
situation.
That position pretends
to carry the scheme
beyond a simple economic
mechanism, in order to
boost programs capable
of eliminating poverty
and malnutrition in the
area.
MERCOSUR emerged in 1991
to group several big
South American economies
with a joint Gross
Domestic Product (GDP)
of 1.2 trillion dollars,
equivalent to 75 per
cent of that indicator
in all of South America.
The entity points to the
option of widening its
membership with the
acceptance of Bolivia
and Venezuela as full
members, providing the
group with an important
energy component to its
cooperation efforts.
The most recent
aspirations come from
Caracas, as in 2006 that
government inked the
protocol to enter the
bloc and the
incorporation process is
about to be concluded. |
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