Integration and consumer protection: The case of Latin America

The author analyses Latin American attempts at creating a Common Market in which the free circulation of goods and services is guaranteed. He is concerned with the impact upon the emerging issues of consumer protection. The most promising project of economic integration has been initiated by the 1991 Asunción Treaty in which Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay participate and which has the aim of creating a Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR). The author describes the institutional mechanisms set up in order to establish MERCOSUR by the end of 1994. The safeguard clauses allowing for restrictions on trade in the interest of consumer protection follow the model of the European Communities but are not controlled by an independent Court of Justice. Therefore, harmonisation of legislation is imperative but difficult. If such harmonisation is not feasible, goods may become banned in some Member States while circulating freely in others, and marketing practices may at the same time be forbidden in some and allowed in other Member States. This could eventually endanger both integration and consumer protection.