The Southern Common Market (Mercosur) is an agreement that aims to politically and economically integrate the nations of the Southern Cone of Latin America. This association, which was formalized through the Treaty of Asunción, signed in 1991, comprises Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela. Conceived during the decade of the eighties, the period in which democratic systems replaced military dictatorships in Latin America, his first expression was the integration agreement signed in 1986 by Argentine President Raul Alfonsin and his Brazilian counterpart Jose Sarney. Among member countries, plus others like Chile - whose government signed in 1995 a free trade agreement with Mercosur, and Bolivia, are currently practiced in an active process of reducing tariffs.
The Mercosur was born in a globalized world, characterized by a rapid expansion of international trade. But nations that operate in this scenario does not go it alone, but integrated in blocks, as the European Union and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
At the Miami Summit of 1994, U.S. President Bill Clinton launched the project of creating the Free Trade Area of the Americas, a partnership designed to encourage sharing among all States of the Americas. The Mercosur is not opposed to this initiative, but is determined to remain as an entity having its own identity and personality within the FTAA.