Mercosur and Global Value Chains: is it possible to integrate without disintegrating?
Mercosur, Global Value Chains, Regional Value Chains, Economic Integration, International Economy
Production and trading processes are increasingly fragmented, specialized and regionalized. The so-called Global Value Chains would be the new form of international division of labor and would have originated a new analytical framework that studies the integration and economic participation of countries in the international economy. In this context, Mercosur is a regional integration bloc that has stalled and even regressed in some areas. Although it does Universidade de Brasília Departamento de Economia – Pós-Graduação not seem to be heading towards its end, it is not advancing towards its initial objective of forming a common market. This research seeks to discuss whether it is possible for Mercosur to integrate into the international economy without disintegrating regionally and what would be the possible strategies for the bloc and its members. To this end, we propose the Integration Trilemma as a prism through which to reflect on the possible paths to be chosen by Mercosur and its member countries. One can only choose between two of the three options: integration into the international economy, national sovereignty or regional integration; resulting in three possible strategies.