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South American leaders agree to push for pan-continent trade group
AFP
CORDOBA, Argentina
Petroleumworld.com 07 22 06
Leaders of South America's biggest trade grouping backed proposals Friday to establish a continent-wide free trade pact in a summit also attended by Cuban President Fidel Castro.
The leaders of Mercosur members Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Venezuela reiterated their commitment to unify with the four-state Andean Community and other countries into the continent-wide South American Community free trade group.
The group also endorsed Venezuela's effort to join the United Nations Security Council as a non-permanent member.
Venezuela was attending the meeting for the first time as a full member after quitting the Andean Community, which groups Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia and Peru.
Also attending were the leaders of Mercosur's associate members, Michelle Bachelet of Chile and Evo Morales of Bolivia. Mexican Foreign Minister Ernesto Derbez was at the event as an observer.
In their declaration the five endorsed the European Union-modeled South American Community announced in December 2004 at the South American summit. The group would join together Mercosur, the Andean Community and Chile, Guyana and Surinam.
With its new member Venezuela, Mercosur now has a total population of more than 250 million people, a gross regional product of over one trillion dollars and regional trade surpassing 300 billion dollars.
Venezuela's joining brought in the region's biggest oil producer and exporter and only member of oil cartel OPEC.
The summit in Cordoba, Argentina, was marked by the presence of Castro, who turns 80 next month, as a guest of Argentina President Nestor Kirchner.
"Nobody knew I was coming, not even me," Castro, whose trips are usually kept secret, said in a speech to his fellow South American leaders.
Castro, a thorn in Washington's side for decades, said he was "very happy at turning 80, something that I never had hoped for, much less when we had a neighbor, by chance the most powerful force worldwide, trying to eliminate me every day."
"This must be the only meeting in which they did not try to attack me," he said.
The end of the two-day summit was marked by a huge rally of about 20,000 people for Castro and President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.
In a lengthy speech, Chavez expressed his happiness at seeing Argentina "on its feet. It arose and it is moving, as comrade Mao Zedong said," Chavez said of the host government of Nestor Kirchner.
Chavez attacked the United States as "the North American empire that has a public plan for transition in Cuba".
"Do they think that Fidel will go away?" he asked the huge crowd, which replied,
"No, no."
"Fidel won't go," Chavez said.
During the summit Castro signed a Complementary Economic Accord with the group which will benefit the island state in its trade with Mercosur countries.
Host Kirchner warned his audience in his opening speech that the trade bloc's integration must be about more than just economic growth.
"We are not interested only in economic integration. We are not interested in a region of the world where integration is full of poverty, exclusion and unemployment," Kirchner said, referring to the sharp differences between strong economies such as Argentina, Venezuela and Brazil, and smaller economies such as Paraguay and Uruguay.
There are also disagreements among member states: Argentina, for example, is trying to stop Uruguay from building two potentially polluting pulp mills on the Uruguay river that serves as a border between the countries.
Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay formed Mercosur in 1991 with the aim of creating a South American common market. Chile and Bolivia became associate members in 1996.
AFP 22 0147 GMT 07 06
Copyright ©2006 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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