“…7 That year, the main exporting countries were Brazil, with $13,950 million, followed by Argentina with $9,949 million, Uruguay $956.8 million, and Paraguay $917 million (see Table 1). Mercosur has been the object of many studies, particularly on the common external tariff (Olerreaga and Soloaga, 1999), transport costs (Amjadi and Winters, 1997), regional policy coordination (Rodriguez Prada, 1997), dynamic and static effects of integration (Bekerman and Sirlin, 2001), the nature of the business cycle, (Allegret and Sand-Zantman, 2007), convergence dynamics, (Blyde, 2006), the role of the exchange rate regime (Allegret and Sand-Zantman, 2008) and direct foreign investment (Chudnovsky, 2007), among others. These studies have highlighted the important potential that resides in Mercosur to propel the member countries' development.…”