Regionalismo abierto y nueva integración, ¿qué modelo genera más integración comercial en Sudamérica?

Abstract

South America has recently experienced two models of integration in the process of economic globalization. In the nineties, opened regionalism prioritized growth in trade through free market and the minimum governmental intervention. In the 21st century, the integration model known as new integration proposed to raise intraregional generating benefits beyond the economic ones. Both models coexist and even they could complement each other but beyond the theory, which has generated a major commercial integration? The application of several indexes shows how the exchange between South American countries was major in the nineties that in the 21st century because of the irruption of China on the market, which it has absorbed in the last years part of regional trade. It invites to think that opened regionalism has generated more commercial integration than new integration, seduced by the opportunities from abroad.