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Americas - Institutions
ALADI (Latin American Integration Association / Asociación Latinoamericana
de Integración.
The ALADI is the largest Latin-American group of integration. It has twelve
member countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba,
Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela, totaling 20 million
sq km and more than 430 million people.
The 1980 Montevideo Treaty (TM80) is the global legal framework that
constitutes and rules the ALADI and was signed on August 12th 1980. It
establishes the following general principles: pluralism, convergence,
flexibility, differential treatment and multiplicity.
The ALADI promotes the creation of an area of economic preferences in the
region, aiming at a Latin-American common market, through three mechanisms:
- Regional tariff preference granted to products originating in the member
countries, based on the tariffs in vigour for third countries
- Regional scope agreement, among member countries
- Partial scope agreements, between two or more countries of the area
Either regional or partial scope agreements (Articles 6 to 9) may cover
tariff relief and trade promotion; economic complementation; agricultural trade;
financial, fiscal, customs and health cooperation; environment preservation;
scientific and technological cooperation, tourism promotion; technical standards
and many other fields (Articles 10 to 14).
As the TM80 is a “frame treaty”, by subscribing it, the Governments of the
member countries authorize its Representatives to legislate through agreements
on the most important economical subjects for each country.
A preference system, which consists of market opening lists, special
cooperation programs (business rounds, preinvestment, financing, technological
support) and countervailing measures on behalf of the landlocked countries, has
been granted to the countries qualified as relatively less developed (Bolivia,
Ecuador and Paraguay), to favour their fully participation in the process of
integration.
Any Latin-American country can join the 1980 Montevideo Treaty. The Republic
of Cuba was the last country to accede, becoming full member country on August
26th 1999. Besides, the ALADI is also open to the all Latin American countries
through agreements with other countries and integration areas of the continent
(Article 25), as well as to other developing countries or their respective
integration areas outside Latin America (Article 27).
As the institutional and normative “umbrella” of regional integration that
shelters these agreements as well as the subregional ones (CAN, MERCOSUR, G-3,
etc.) it is the aim of the Association to support and favour every effort in
order to create a common economic area.
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