Stênio Ribeiro
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Brasília - In his trip that he will make on the 13th to Venezuela, Surinam, and Guyana, President Lula will try to convince the governments of Paramaribo and Georgetown to become part of the free trade agreement joining the countries of the Mercosur and the Andean Community.

The agreement entered into effect on the first of February, when the Federal Register published President Lula's decree ratifying the protocol of intentions to establish the agreement, signed by the chancellors of the member countries last October, in Montevideo, Uruguay. At the time the Brazilian Minister of Foreign Relations, Celso Amorim, reasserted Brazil's priority for continental integration.

With the consolidation of the Mercosur (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay), and the associated countries, Chile and Bolivia, South America's economic, physical, and soci0-cultural integration received an additional impulse from the adherence of Peru, Equador, Colombia, and
Venezuela. If it was up to the Brazilian government, this integration movement would soon include the participation of Surinam and Guyana, within the ambit of a free trade agreemeent embracing the Mercosur, the Andean Community, and the Caribbean.

The free trade agreement, prepared by the Latin American Association for Development and Integration (ALADI), represents a privileged instrument for regional trade and should have an immediate impact on improving relations among South American countries in terms of business competitiveness and consumer access to various products of regional origin.

The free trade accord envisions, first of all, an intensification of economic, social, and institutional integration, with mutual investments in areas of physical infrastructure, energy, and communications. Incentives will also be needed to stimulate cooperation in technological, scientific, and cultural spheres, as well as rural and nutritional development, with an eye to correcting regional disparities.

Translation: David Silberstein