Processos de Integração

Mercosul: Beyond 2000, por Ricardo Andrés Markwald

This chapter is divided in four sections. The first section provides a brief introduction to the shifts happening regarding regional integration in Latin America by the year-end of 2000. The second section offers a brief analysis of the impacts of integration in the Southern Cone, highlighting the static effects, dynamic impacts and non-traditional gains arising from this process. The third section discusses the current deadlock in Mercosul, stressing on the fact that Mercosul is not the only possible strategy for opening up the global economy to its two main members, as these clashes may be due to the existence of nonconvergent alternatives running parallel to the integration drive. The fourth and final section focuses on Mercosul’s external negotiations agenda, concluding with somewhat cautious forecasts for the future of this integration project.