...now that they are allowing the likes of Castro and Chevez into their fold? I happen to believe this is a great move for all of the South American and now Caribbean countries. The U.S./CIA/BushCo I am sure have a completely different take on the matter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercosur<snip>
Some South Americans see Mercosur as giving the capability to combine resources to balance the activities of other global economic powers, perhaps especially the United States and the European Union. The organization could also potentially pre-empt the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), however, over half of the current Mercosur member countries rejected the FTAA proposal at the IV Cumbre de las Américas (IV Summit of the Americas) in Argentina in 2005.
The development of Mercosur was arguably weakened by the collapse of the Argentine economy in 2002 and it has still seen internal conflicts over trade policy, between Brazil and Argentina, for example.
In December 2004 it signed a cooperation agreement with the Andean Community trade bloc (CAN) and they published a joint letter of intention for a future negotiations towards integrating all of South America. The prospect of increased political integration within the organization, as per the European Union and advocated by some, is still uncertain.
There are more than 220 million people in this region and the combined Gross Domestic Product of the member nations is more than one trillion dollars a year.
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