UNASUR protects the region against the international crisis

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Minga | 2011-08-12

(Freely translated by Anoosha Boralessa in 2015 for bilaterals.org)

UNASUR protects the region against the international crisis

The Union of South American Nations resolved today to put in place a six-point Plan of Action to protect the region from the international crisis that is shaking Europe and the United States.

The plan was adopted by the South American Economic and Financial Council at its first meeting under the leadership of UNASUR Secretary General, Maria Emma Mejia, and the Argentine Minister of Economy, Amado Boudou.

Among the six points included in the plan was a decision to make technical cooperation on the mobilisation and use of international reserves viable.

It recommends expanding the Latin American Reserves Fund (FLAR) and tailouring it to a new context, so that it may function as an instrument for the entire region.

The use of regional currencies in intraregional trade to stimulate integration was also included, as well as a proposal to consider a Single System for Regional Payment Clearing (SUCRE) or other means of settlement.

The Council also decided to take action to bolster the Andean Development Corporation (CAF) whose primary objective, it stressed, is to promote integration, development and social inclusion.

It took a similar position on stimulating mutually beneficial trade within the region, taking into account existing asymmetries between countries that can work together to achieve socio-economic complementarities.

During the UNASUR Economic and Finance Council meeting, a petition signed by a hundred social organisations demanding ”regional integration that serves people’s rights" was discussed. The text encourages the Council to protect the assets and wealth of region from predatory, speculative and looting activities emerging from the heart of the global economic and political system.

Furthermore it demands that UNASUR maintain “a way of working that is different from the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and other international institutions that are behind the current food, environmental, energy and economic crisis" that is ruining the planet.

source : Minga Informativa de Movimientos Sociales

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