ABSTRACT
Once some of the early hurdles had been overcome and Mercosur seemed to have arrived as a going concern, there was a great deal to do to make the organization more than a temporary success. Most importantly, according to Mercosur’s original goals, it was to move all the way to a free trade area by the beginning of 1995, and was meant to agree to the rules of a custom’s union by the same date. This was clearly an ambitious timetable, with the goal of getting to this new state of affairs less than four years from the signing of the original treaty. Many doubted that it could be accomplished, and along the way to signing the custom’s union agreement, there were widespread opinions that the date would have to be pushed back or that Mercosur would simply have to remain a free trade area.
