MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Peru becomes associate member of Mercosur.

Peru is scheduled to become the third associate member of Mercosur during the block's presidential summit in Montevideo this week after having successfully concluded negotiations according to Uruguayan diplomatic sources.

Mercosur full members are Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, with Chile and Bolivia as associate members.

However Peruvian president Alejandro Toledo will not the present at the Tuesday event since he's facing a major reshuffle of his cabinet, the fourth since taking office. Mr. Toledo will be represented by Foreign Minister Allan Wagner.

Peru's final association was worked out during last minute discussions over the weekend involving Mercosur and the Community of Andean Nations to which Bolivia and Peru belong that were held at the main offices of the Latinamerican Integration Association, ALADI, in Montevideo. Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador are also members of CAN.

The Mercosur-Peru understanding will be seen as a pilot test for the full integration of both South American trade blocks, a process that began in the early nineties but has repeatedly stalled mainly over agriculture and market access differences.

Last August when Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva visited Peru, 2004 was set as the deadline for an understanding

However there are still some issues to iron out particularly involving the less developed countries in both blocks, Paraguay and Uruguay in Mercosur and Ecuador in CAN. Paraguayan Foreign Minister Leila Rachid confirmed there were still problems but "we are hopeful that an agreement can be reached".

"The asymmetries arising between the more and less developed countries must be contemplates", said Ms. Rachid who insisted that "Ecuador, Uruguay and Paraguay, the smallest countries in the continent have always had this very much present, and in different ways has been contemplated in the ALADI process".

The presidents of Mercosur full members and Chile and Bolivia are scheduled to be present in the main Peru association ceremony next Tuesday. That same day former Argentine president Eduardo Duhalde will officially become Secretary General of Mercosur's Committee of Permanent Representatives, a job with limited powers that anyhow will give the block a more continuous political presence internationally.

During the presidential summit, Uruguay will be handing the Mercosur chair for the next six months to Argentina.