| Although the World Trade Organization has played a significant role in world trade and in the development of world economies it has not been able to evenly distribute the gains from trade across both the developed and developing world. With the effects of the 2008 financial crises still encumbering economic growth for many countries, Mercosur members face serious challenges to accessing world trading markets, attracting foreign direct investment and promoting competition for domestic industries. As such, for Mercosur to recapture the economic growth experienced in the 1990s Mercosur must abandon hopes of achieving success through the special and differential treatment provisions within the WTO and instead pursue a trade liberalization agenda, one which includes negotiating a free trade agreement with the European Union and implementing comparative advantage based structural, social and political reforms. |
