From first gear to reverse: prognostics of the regional integration agenda of Brazil and Argentina at Mercosur

Abstract

Inserted in the debate about the 15th anniversary of the formalization of Mercosur, this paper analyses the integration process of Mercosur under the perspective of the two main trade-partners, Argentina and Brazil, aiming to review some topics that allow the characterization of the evolution and the block performance in its political, economic and institutional dimensions. This paper stresses the international relations focus in the discussion of the constructive process of the Mercosur regional integration, aiming to identify the economic and the political strategies that explain the spatial logics and relations of power between Argentina and Brazil that constantly reshape the block. Through this discussion assistance is supplied to warrantee plurality and depth for the debate about the rough paths of evolution of the Mercosur integration and the dilemmas lately faced by Argentina and Brazil, taking as granted the possibility to better understand the real situation and the problems that the integration process faces for a renew.