Mercosur Summit to Sign New Economic Zone Agreement

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  Mercosur Summit to Sign New Economic Zone Agreement

(RIA Novosti) – Participants of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) summit are expected to sign documents establishing a new economic zone that includes the member states of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), the Caribbean Community (Caricom), Mercosur and Petrocaribe, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said.
“Mercosur is a mechanism open to cooperate with all of the world economic and trade blocks, so that there is no contradiction here,” Telesur quoted Jaua as saying prior to the “the most important outcome of this summit” which will be the signing of the new economic zone.
On Monday, Mercosur countries unanimously ratified their commitment to strengthen the regional trade bloc, which is considered key to countering the negative effects of neoliberal globalization in the Americas.
Mercosur is an economic and political agreement that counts Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay as full members, and Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru as associate members.
Venezuela has been holding the rotating presidency of the group and since July 2013. Over the year, the group held more than 220 meetings on socio-political, institutional and commercial issues, as well as adopted numerous important regulations and rules.
ALBA was conceived by Venezuelan late President Hugo Chavez and was created in 2004 by Venezuela and Cuba as an alternative to the alternative to the US-led Free Trade Area of the Americas. The alliance unites Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Venezuela and Saint Lucia.
Petrocaribe, an oil alliance of 17 Caribbean nations was also initiated by Venezuela to purchase oil on conditions of preferential payment. The alliance was launched in 2005, and in 2013 Petrocaribe agreed with ALBA to go beyond oil and promote economic cooperation.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro earlier said that the decision of an economic forum between Mercosur, ALBA and Petrocaribe is “one of the most important initiatives.”
The idea of the new economic zone was first introduced by Caracas last year.
The Mercosur Presidential Summit is to be held Tuesday in Caracas, Venezuela. Prior to the summit, some 250 entrepreneurs from South America and the Caribbean gathered for the Third Business Forum to conclude several proposals on social responsibility, training, and the new financial architecture in the region.