ABSTRACT
This chapter is an analysis of the Asian presence in the Southern Cone. While MERCOSUR 1 is an easy proxy here, the definition of the area taken into consideration is geographical, not political. Therefore MERCOSUR as intended here will not include Venezuela, which is a candidate country of the common market and it would instead consider Chile, which is not part of it. The reason for this choice is because the Southern Cone is more homogenous in terms of economic and social characteristics than the political MERCOSUR. Venezuela is quite different from the rest of the countries taken into exam here, and therefore, was briefly considered in Chapter 6 when talking about the oil companies.
