Venezuela enters Mercosur trade bloc
CORDOBA, Argentina – Venezuela formally entered Mercosur Friday, increasing the South American trade bloc’s economic might and vowing to transform the once-sleepy policy organization into a force for profound social change.
President Nestor Kirchner welcomed the “historic” addition of oil-rich Venezuela, the continent’s No. 3 economy after Brazil and Argentina, launching a round of speeches by Latin America’s leading leftists, who asserted the region’s independence from a Washington model many of their citizens see as a failure.
Anti-U.S. crusader Hugo Chavez immediately urged Mercosur to put aside internal squabbles and stand against the U.S.-backed free-market policies he says “enslaved” the region in debt to the International Monetary Fund.
“Latin America has all it needs to become a great world power. Let’s not put any limits on our dreams. Let’s make them reality,” the Venezuelan leader declared.
The addition of Venezuela gives Mercosur a combined market of 250 million people and a combined output of $1 trillion in goods and services annually, said Brazil’s president, Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva.
NAFTA, combining the markets of the United States, Canada and Mexico, has 450 million consumers and a combined gross product of about $14 trillion.
Still, Silva said “no one’s talking anymore” about the U.S.-backed Free Trade of the Americas proposal blocked by Venezuela and the Mercosur nations last year.
news.yahoo.com