Mercosur as a Regional and Global Protagonist

Abstract

Developing a climate of mutual trust and promoting a renewed regional integration, especially one that enables to connect the economic systems and encourage the proliferation of transnational production chains, are two priority courses of action that the current circumstances impose upon Latin America nations and, in particular, the South American space. Both courses of action are interrelated: one feeds the other generating a virtuous cycle between mutual trust and the density of the network of cross interests of all kinds. The new world context will demand a greater regional cooperation, both to control the effects of the financial and economic crisis and to develop an assertive strategy for a competitive participation in global markets. Both, Mercosur and UNASUR, could play an important role if they contribute to renew the approaches and methodologies of regional cooperation and integration.