WHAT ARE THE ECONOMIC BLOCS OF AMERICA? - ECONOMY - 2025

The main economic blocs in America are the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR), the Andean Community of Nations (CAN), the Central American Integration System (SICA) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

The last half of the last century left several integration systems throughout the Americas that sought to strengthen ties between the countries of each region of the continent.

The American continent has important economic blocks.

The countries sought to ally themselves with other nations in the same region. In the case of North America, the three countries that make up that region joined in a free trade agreement. This was the case with the other regions of Central and South America.

Main economic blocks of America

In some cases, countries were merged into mechanisms of countries relatively equal in size of their economies.

This can be observed in the case of the Andean Community of Nations (CAN) and the Central American Integration System (SICA), where they are countries with similar economic sizes.

In some cases, such as CAN and MERCOSUR, citizens of their countries have passports with the name of this mechanism, just like the European Union.

Next, let us see in detail the regional integration systems of America and which countries make them up:

1. Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR)

It was created in 1992 with the so-called Asunción protocol, alluding to the capital of Paraguay, where the treaty was signed. Almost 300 million people live within this commercial block.

Initially, it was born with Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil as members. Today, there are other countries that are full members, such as Venezuela.

There are also other countries as partners, including Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru.

2. Andean Community of Nations (CAN)

Its beginnings date back to the 70s, when Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia and Venezuela joined in an agreement to open their economies with more facilities between these nations.

The Andean Community of Nations has a population of 108 million people.

Decades later Chile stopped integrating the community. Similarly, Venezuela withdrew in the latter.

3. Central American Integration System (SICA)

When the countries of Central America became independent, for a time they were one country. Later they took different paths.

More than a century later, they joined in SICA to have trade facilities between them and unify migration issues.

SICA unites Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Belize and the Dominican Republic. It has a population that is reaching 60 million people.

4. North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

Like MERCOSUR, NAFTA was born in the same year, 1992. Canada, the United States of America and Mexico signed an agreement that allows free trade in goods between each of their countries.

The United States of America has the largest and most robust economy on the planet. This block brings together more than 450 million people.

So this bloc, along with Mexico and Canada, is practically one of the main commercial blocs in the world, due to the money that moves between them and the size of the economy of the three nations.

References

1. SICA-Central American Integration System. Macro Data. Recovered from the site: datosmacro.com
2. NAFTA-North American Free Trade Agreement. Macro Data. Recovered from the site: datosmacro.com
3. What is Mercosur? Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR). Recovered from the site: mercosur.int
4. What is the CAN? - Andean Community of Nations. Recovered from the site: comunidadandina.org
5. Image N1. Author: Gerd Altmann. Recovered from the site: pixabay.com.