Sovereignty versus integration

Brazil is, arguably, the leading economy in South America, and where I live. Because this year we are going to have major elections, mainly for our presidency, debates in regards to South American policies are boiling due to international context.

Because the USA, justifiably, kicked Russia out of the international SWIFT payment system, making us lose trust in the dollar, the debate about how to guarantee sovereignty in South America is a hot topic.

South America was always considered a backyard and test ground for the USA government. We have suffered from coups to economic sanctions without ever fighting back. Despite all of that, because some economies in the South have a poor performance, they rely heavily on the dollar as a reserve of value. This reliance on the USA currency makes us vulnerable to international turmoils.

Being independent though, in the South, doesn’t mean self reliance as a single country, it means relying on our neighbors and helping when possible. We have a generalized idea that all South American countries are brothers and that our destiny is intertwined, and for one to thrive all must thrive. Before the recent chauvinism in the past elections in Brazil, we used to invest in lots of foreign infrastructure projects.

Because of that brotherhood, despite the recent wave of chauvinism, the idea of a zone of free trade and free pass has been attempted with the MERCOSUL, but it hasn’t made much progress. The next step for regional integration would be unifying the economies by using a single currency, like the European Union does with the Euro.

Yes, the Euro and the European Union have huge flaws in the design of it’s economy, and if we try to adopt a similar strategy we may inherit the same flaws. But on the flip side, from here, it looks like the European Union is not that united and that their countries are always fighting and competing, in a negative way, with each other.

South American relationships are much healthier and friendly. Although friendship by itself doesn’t bring financial stability, it may be the secret to do what the European Union couldn’t.

That said, the idea of a South American Union is far away. MERCOSUL took a long time to be arranged and evolving any kind of union or agreement will take many years.