A malha ferroviária como uma solução ao desenvolvimento econômico do Mercosul: potencialidades e entraves

Abstract

The present paperwork elucidates the regional integration process of MERCOSUL, consolidated by the countries of South Latin America during the process of globalization and commercial liberalism that raised competitiveness and brought into discussion a new international division of labor. It seeks to define the historical development of South LatinAmerican countries with the political and economic forces thatact in international system, those who influenced the so called non-developed countries during their productive progress.The regionalism is described as a way to compensate the losses in terms of global trade, trying to achieve asymmetry within the regional economies. The retaken of CEPAL’s ideal of integration, driven in the diffusion of technology and in the late industrial development as a reinforcement of a strong institutionalism and a cooperative effort between Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. It correlates the necessity of development in the railway logistics infrastructure in order to develop regional economy and social queries. For that it is considered the Fund for Infrastructural Convergence of MERCOSUL (FOCEM) as an instrument that is able to promote integration, either because of the funds that are available to infraestrutural improvement, or to overcome asymmetries in economy, politics and social issues, aiming to build a joint railway within the countries of MERCOSUL, that seeks to maximize trade and instigate economic and social development.The railway integrationhas advantages, but still it is necessary to overcome regional historical problems in a political, economic and social reform, in order to reduce differences between the South Latin American countries, promoting the necessary development.