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Regional
currency to replace dollar in Argentina-Brazil trade
RIA Novosti | May 23, 2007
BUENOS AIRES -- Argentina and
Brazil, South America's two largest economies, will drop the
U.S. dollar in favor of a regional currency in their bilateral
trade starting in October 2007, Argentine Economics Minister
Felisa Miceli said.
The countries' transition to a new
currency, as yet unnamed, is part of a pilot project by the South
American continent's major trade alliance, Mercosur, to replace the
U.S. currency in internal transactions with money of its own, Miceli
said.
Speaking ahead of a Mercosur
ministerial session in Paraguay, she said the new currency should
eventually spread throughout the bloc, which also includes Paraguay,
Uruguay, and Venezuela.
Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador
and Peru have associate member status.
Argentine-Brazilian commerce topped
$20 billion in 2006, with Argentina running a deficit of $4 billion.
Since its foundation in 1991,
Mercosur's primary objective has been to remove obstacles to
internal trade. But the recent admission of Venezuela made experts
wonder whether the country's anti-American leader, Hugo Chavez,
would try to turn Mercosur into a political weapon to undermine U.S.
influence in the region.
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