[FR] Regional Economic Integration in South America

In the European imagination, South America is a continent where revolutions, sudden reversals and abrupt changes are recurring themes. The image of the good revolutionary and that of the sorcerer’s apprentice in economic policy are just some of the representations traditionally associated with this region, which, after two decades of political and economic transition, is struggling to find stability and a common vision for the future. Political instability and repeated economic setbacks have long reduced the region’s credibility, which has inevitably undermined its strategic economic interest and its credibility on the international stage. Relegated to a secondary position in the interests of the three dynamic poles of economic globalisation (the United States, the EU and East Asia), South America is struggling to catch up with the train of virtuous economic growth compatible with the rules of economic and financial globalisation.

For example, MERCOSUR, the largest regional bloc in the region, accounts for less than 2% of global GDP. The continent’s difficult integration into global economic integration is merely a reflection on the international stage of the difficulty of integrating populations, territories and states. South America thus remains one of the most unequal continents on the planet, where social disparities are still a source of political instability and represent a considerable handicap for any medium-term development project. The territories are remote, which conspires against the physical integration of the continent and poses serious infrastructure problems within certain countries in the region (this is particularly true of Brazil). As a result, the integration of countries in the region is fundamentally hampered by these structural constraints. The final item on this list of adverse factors is that South American states, which have been aspiring to integration for over a century, remain divided by strong rivalries, which are sometimes fuelled by interests outside the region.