It is hard to know which is more fashionable, bashing Mercosur or exalting it. In some ways, things have never looked better for the incipient common market, which consists of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. Uruguay's presidential election in October replaced a Merco-sceptic with the Merco-phile Tabard Vazquez. Now the three biggest economies will be led by leftish politicians keen on regional integration (tiny Paraguay has little choice). They enjoy healthy economic growth and their budget and foreign-exchange policies are similar. Yet on the eve of next week's summit in Ouro Preto in Brazil, where Mercosur assumed its current form ten years ago, there is more snarling than celebration. Argentina is putting up barriers to Brazilian exports. Brazilian rice growers have blocked shipments from Argentina and Uruguay. Talks on a free-trade agreement with the European Union ran aground in October in part, say critics, because Mercosur could not present a decent offer. "The consensus around the building of Mercosur is starting to crumble," says Alfredo Valladao of Sciences Po, a French university.
展开▼
