{
  "id": "RL33620",
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      "date": "2008-03-26",
      "retrieved": "2016-04-07T03:33:36.777361",
      "title": "Mercosur: Evolution and Implications for U.S.\u00a0Trade Policy",
      "summary": "Mercosur is the Common Market of the South established by Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay in 1991 to promote economic integration and political cooperation among the four countries. Since then, Mercosur has struggled to achieve deep economic integration, but has maintained a cooperative economic and political framework, which has also become an influential voice in determining the fate of the hemisphere\u2019s regional integration initiatives. In particular, the U.S. vision for hemispheric integration, the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), has stalled largely because of opposition from within Mercosur, which in turn has focused on its own, albeit limited, expansion.\nThe Mercosur pact calls for an incremental path to a full integration, but after 15 years, only a limited customs union has been achieved. From the outset, Mercosur struggled to reconcile a basic inconsistency in a pact of partial economic union: how to achieve economic integration, while also ensuring that the benefits would be balanced among members and that each country would retain some control over its trade, production, and consumption structure. This delicate balance faced overcoming serious structural and policy asymmetries that became clear when Brazil and Argentina experienced financial crises and deep recessions. These economic setbacks disrupted trade flows among members, causing friction, the adoption of protectionist measures, and a retreat from the commitment to deeper economic integration.\nFor now, Mercosur has turned to expanding rather than deepening the agreement. Many South American countries have been added as \u201cassociate members\u201d and Mercosur has reached out for other South-South arrangements in Africa and Asia \u2013 all limited agreements and unlikely paths to continental economic integration. Internal conflicts have highlighted Mercosur\u2019s institutional weaknesses and slowed the integration process. On July 4, 2006, Venezuela signed an accession agreement to become its first new full member, making Mercosur the undisputed economic counterweight to United States in the region, but raising questions about how Venezuela\u2019s membership may shift regional political and trade dynamics.\nIt appears that Mercosur has opted to emphasize its expansion both in the region and with other developing countries over agreements with its largest developed country trade partners, looking to the World Trade Organization (WTO) as the preferred alternative for achieving many of its trade policy goals. Nonetheless, U.S.-Mercosur commercial and economic ties are expanding and the United States is pursuing deeper bilateral trade relations with Uruguay that could provide new ideas for a broader integration commitment. The alternative may be for Mercosur and the United States to expand their mutually exclusive bilateral agreements, increasing the potential for overlapping trading systems, which few, if any, view as either economically or administratively optimal.",
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    {
      "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department",
      "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc812824/",
      "id": "RL33620_2007Jan05",
      "date": "2007-01-05",
      "retrieved": "2016-03-19T13:57:26",
      "title": "Mercosur: Evolution and Implications for U.S. Trade Policy",
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      "topics": []
    },
    {
      "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department",
      "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metacrs9517/",
      "id": "RL33620 2006-08-23",
      "date": "2006-08-23",
      "retrieved": "2006-12-05T13:31:45",
      "title": "Mercosur: Evolution and Implications for U.S. Trade Policy",
      "summary": null,
      "type": "CRS Report",
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      "topics": [
        {
          "source": "LIV",
          "id": "Trade",
          "name": "Trade"
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        {
          "source": "LIV",
          "id": "Foreign trade - Mercosur",
          "name": "Foreign trade - Mercosur"
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          "id": "International trade",
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}