Abstract

The Mercosur countries face the challenge of consolidating the progress made
in the integration process and deepening this process in the direction of building a true
common market. There is an issue that, in this sense, takes on special importance on the
negotiating agenda: the harmonization of microeconomic policies (industrial, commercial, technological and regional). The purpose of this paper is to analyze the way in which the
harmonization of these policies was developed in the case of the European Community
to extract useful lessons to face this process in Mercosur. An attempt is made to analyze
how the conflicts generated around the following dilemmas were resolved in said experience:
which policies should converge to ensure fair game rules in the regional market? What
methodology (explicit harmonization or institutional competence) is the most adequate to
ensure this convergence? What philosophy should guide the implementation of community
microeconomic policies? What is the role of directly supranational institutions in the harmonization
of policies and in the audit of national policies?

JEL Classification: L52; F15.