MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Ecuador wants closer ties between Mercosur and the Andean-Pacific countries

Correa said Ecuador feels closer to Mercosur than to CAN

Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa said he was satisfied with having presented an official request for his country to join Mercosur and also called for closer links between Mercosur and the Andean Nations Community, CAN.

“From Ecuador we believe integration must be done through the two blocks, CAN and Mercosur, transcending the mercantilist approach” said Correa during a speech to his peers at the Mercosur summit held in Montevideo, Uruguay.

“The new financial architecture has great obstacles and must stop transferring hundreds of billions of dollars to the First World, and we must stop asking for money to pay for interest. We are continually transferring wealth to the First World”, said Correa.

The Ecuadorean leader said his vision of affairs “is closer to that of Mercosur than that of CAN” in direct reference to Peru and Colombia which are also members of CAN but have a more open, orthodox policy, particularly regarding foreign investment in natural resources.

Correa also underlined that in the event of Ecuador joining Mercosur, it would be of great advantage for the block since it would have a foothold on the Pacific, “and this is positive for Ecuador and the other members of Mercosur”.

The Ecuadorean president also cautioned about confronting what he described as “big capital”. “If we confront big capital divided, they will defeat us, squash us. Mercosur has a huge potential, we can condition big capital and overcome paradoxes that have become so common that we have lost our surprise capacity”, added the Ecuadorean leader.

Uruguayan president and host of the summit, Jose Mujica said Mercosur has named a high level committee to assess Ecuador’s formal request to join the group as a full member.