THE ALADI – Latin American Integration Association – is an economic bloc created in 1980 by the Montevideo Treaty with the aim of replacing ALALC (Latin American Free Trade Association). It currently comprises 11 member countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. Panama and Nicaragua are in the process of joining.
ALADI covers a total territory of approximately 20 million km², around 500 million inhabitants and a GDP in excess of 1 trillion and 700 billion dollars. Its main objective is to promote greater integration between the countries that make up Latin America, establish trade agreements and gradually create a common Latin American market.
To achieve its goals, ALADI uses three main mechanisms:
The) Regional tariff preference: what represents the reduction of customs tariffs granted preferentially to member countries of this group;
B) Regional scope agreements: agreements that refer to the import/export of goods and merchandise, cooperation, financial complementation and other activities that are common to all member countries;
ç) Partial scope agreements: agreements of the same nature, but involving only some of the member countries.
Despite having a larger number of member countries, ALADI is below MERCOSUR and NAFTA in America in terms of representativeness and political weight in the political economy worldwide. In addition, it is in the background in South American economic policy in view of the creation of UNASUR (Union of South American Nations).
By Rodolfo F. Alves Feather
Graduated in Geography
