Venezuela to join Mercosur
Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez will join the leaders of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay in the Venezuelan capital today to sign an agreement formally inducting Venezuela as a full member of Mercosur.
This will integrate the continent’s third-largest economy into a broad set of common tariff and trade policies.
Venezuela’s entry into Mercosur this week could add economic muscle to the South American trade bloc, but could also expand Chavez’s political battle against US-backed free trade.
His government has hailed it as a victory against a US-backed proposal for a hemisphere-wide free trade area of the Americas.
Also attending Tuesday’s signing will be Bolivian president Evo Morales, who has signed onto a separate initiative by Chavez and Cuba’s Fidel Castro for regional commerce based on socialist principles, and is also considering joining Mercosur.
With Venezuela’s inclusion, Mercosur will account for one trillion dollars (€0.78 trillion) a year in combined gross domestic product – more than three-quarters of the region’s total economic activity.
It will also represent 65% of South America’s population, some 250 million people.
