ABSTRACT
The pursuit of a new balance between states and markets and concerted regional action in areas beyond trade redefined the purpose and the terms of regional governance in South America. The new form of regional political economy featured an important shift away from a dominant preoccupation with 'open regionalism' as a strategy of trade liberalization. With the 1990s significant regional trade integration took off in lockstep with the literature on globalization. Regionalism was itself a manifestation of a pragmatic alignment to the USA and the rules of the international political economic system. In the context, the first wave of regionalism was driven by a quest for 'national capitalism', where trade agreements sought to enhance import substitution and fledgling closed markets at a regional scale. Regionalism is a complex process and is signified by actors in different ways.
