Trade bloc's unease over Chavez

[pampango]

Source: BBC

Venezuela's combative President Hugo Chavez is used to dividing international opinion. But even by his standards, the wrangle over his role in South America's biggest free-trade alliance is pretty impressive.

Venezuela officially teamed up with Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay as a full member of their Mercosur trading bloc in July 2006. At the time, Mr Chavez called the move "historic" and said Venezuela's "road to liberation" lay with Mercosur.

Yet more than three years later, its status is still in limbo, as the club's existing members struggle to ratify the newcomer's application. So far, Venezuela's membership bid has been approved by the leaders of all five states and by the Uruguayan, Argentine and Venezuelan parliaments. However, it has still to be ratified by the Brazilian and Paraguayan legislatures.

So if Brazil is deriving clear economic benefits from closer ties with Venezuela, why has it been so slow to endorse its neighbour's application to join Mercosur? Well, the answer lies in a clause that requires all member countries to be democracies. After measures taken by the Venezuelan government to close one TV station (RCTV) and investigate another (Globovision), some in the Brazilian Congress doubt Mr Chavez's democratic credentials.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8329613.stm

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I hadn't realized that Venezuela was on the verge of becoming a full member of Mercosur or that it had been pending for three years awaiting legislative approval in two of the member countries, Brazil and Paraguay. I didn't even know that Chavez had any interest in free trade agreements like this. Perhaps he likes the idea of uniting the continent (kind of like the EU's goal in Europe) which is Mercosur's long term goal.

Info on Mercosur:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5195834.stm

"Mercosur is South America's leading trading bloc. Known as the Common Market of the South, it aims to bring about the free movement of goods, capital, services and people among its member states."

"It has been likened to the European Union but, with an area of 12m sq km (4.6m sq miles), it is four times as big. The bloc's combined market encompasses more than 250m people and accounts for more than three-quarters of the economic activity on the continent."

"In the longer term, Mercosur aims to create a continent-wide free-trade area..."

[Braulio]

1. Brazil is the leader

if any nation can unite the continent, it will be Brazil. It has a much more dynamic economic system, is a lot larger, has a larger population, is more centrally located, and it has a more sensible leadership with Lula da Silva.

I doubt Venezuela will be given the go ahead to join Mercosur, Brazil already has some difficulty with Argentina's misbehavior on the trade front, so it makes little sense for Brazil to let Venezuela into the alliance until such time as Argentina changes government.

[EFerrari]

2. The reporter must have missed Lula saying that you can fault Chavez

for a lot of things but not democracy. Hit piece.

[Bacchus39]

3. the reporter discusses doubts from the Brazilian legislature

not necessarily from Lula. read the story.