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24/12/2008 | Latin America Trumpets Unity While Stumbling over Regional Integration

Global Insight Staff

Bringing together 33 leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean, the two day "Mega-Summit" in Brazil delivered new regional integration projects and served as a reminder as to why integration has proved so challenging in Latin America.

 

Global Insight Perspective

 

Significance

33 Latin American and Caribbean leaders gathered in Bahia (Brazil) for a full regional summit. The traditional on-the-side meetings of sub-regional groups also took place. Both the United States and the European Union (EU) were not invited to take part in the far-reaching regional summit, in a clear signal of independence from the region.

Implications

The showcase success of the gathering has been the admittance of Cuba to the Rio-Group. The outcomes of the other lower-level meetings were more mixed, with progress and drawbacks in equal measure.

Outlook

While it is highly symbolic that the United States was not invited to the meeting, U.S. leadership and a stronger role for Brazil will be paramount to the success of the new projects, as day-to-day politics and ideological differences will continue to hamper any palpable progress in regional economic and political integration.

The "Mega-Summit"

On 17 December, 33 leaders of Latin American and Caribbean states including Cuba’s Raúl Castro, gathered in the Brazilian resort of Costa do Sauípe to celebrate the first Latin American and Caribbean Summit for Integration and Development (CALC). Symbolically, neither the United States nor the European Union were invited to attend, in a clear show of sovereignty and independence from the region at large and especially from the summit’s host nation, Brazil. The regional meeting yesterday was preceded by a string of summits involving the four existing regional integration bodies. On 16 December, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay gathered for a Mercosur summit, which was followed by a meeting of the 12-member Union of South American States (UNASUR). The series of mini-summits was completed by a meeting on 16 December of the so-called Rio Group, a 23-nation policy consultation and co-ordination platform .

Splendour and Miseries of Regional Integration

Without doubt, the regional gathering’s most important success has been the formal admittance of Cuba to the Rio Group. Alongside this important diplomatic development, the different summits delivered a rather typical mix of slow progress and some setbacks to regional integration efforts.

·         CALC: The CALC ended yesterday with the announcement of the creation of a new permanent regional body designed to integrate the CALC and the Rio Group. While further details are not yet known, it will be the first regional group without the participation of the U.S. or the EU. The heads of state and government agreed to hold a joint Rio Group- CALC summit in 2010 in Mexico.

·         Rio Group: The main development for the Rio Group constituted the formalisation of Cuba's addition, announced earlier this week at a ministerial Rio Group summit. Long estranged from the hemispheric Organisation of American States (OAS), dominated by the United States, Cuba is finding a new regional integration group to join so that it might challenge once again U.S. isolation policy vis-à-vis Cuba.

·         Mercosur: Once again, a Mercosur summit failed to live up to high expectations, as leaders could not agree on eliminating the double tariffs on third-country imports, passing between members of the bloc. This issue is particularly important for land-locked Paraguay, which consequently has been demanding a custom-revenue sharing agreement in exchange for the abolition of the double tariff . On the positive side, the creation of a joint US$100-million fund, designed to facilitate access to credit for small and medium-sized companies operating in the common market, is noteworthy.

·         UNASUR: The leaders of the UNASUR member-countries finally approved the creation of a South American defence council, a project that has been delayed due to Colombia's reluctance to back the Brazil-championed initiative . However, specific Argentina-Uruguay tensions undermined the UNASUR meeting. Indeed, member states could not nominate a secretary general to take over from the current pro-tempore president, Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet. The election ended in deadlock, as Uruguay refused to back the candidacy of former Argentine president, Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007).

Outlook and Implications

Quite predictably, the reaction from Latin American heads of state has been enthusiastic. Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has been the driving force behind the "mega-summit", called the meeting an "historic success" and Cuba’s President Raúl Castro hailed his country’s admission to the Rio Group as "magnificent." President Castro actually emerged diplomatically emboldened from the summit. His first international tour since he succeeded his brother Fidel Castro in 2006—on an interim basis, and this year in a formal capacity—was well timed, as it took advantage of long-building support in the region for the U.S. to end its decades long embargo of the island. Such calls were duly incorporated into the final declaration of the summit. In any case the statement on the embargo is timely, as Barack Obama is only weeks away from taking the reins of the new U.S. administration.

While some of the region’s leftist leaders such as Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, highlighted the absence of the United States and the European Union from the summit, the reality is that U.S. policy towards the region will continue to shape the future of Latin America. This is especially true in the case of Cuba. Alongside the United States, Brazilian leadership will be crucial in dictating the success of regional integration projects, not only in terms of economic clout but also for its ability to reach out to both the U.S. and leftist leaders of the region.

Yet the summit also served as a reminder as to why, historically, grand integration schemes have rarely been matched by equivalent progress on the ground. Latin American countries remain ideologically divided, with countries such as Colombia and Mexico embracing, and others such as Ecuador and Bolivia resisting the idea of free trade. Moreover, day-to-day politics, such as in the case of the failed Mercosur agreement over the abolition of double tariffs, often impedes small but crucial steps forward. Against this background, it remains an open question as to whether the new Brazilian leadership and the future policy of the incoming U.S. administration are robust enough to lead the region in a more closely integrated future

Global Insight (Reino Unido)

 


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