MERCOSUR common market building: harmonization and (or) mutual recognition of rules”

My paper addresses the following questions: can MERCOSUR achieve the goal of creating a common market that implies free movement without resorting to governance instruments that require supranational institutions? Can the Mutual Recognition (MR) instrument resolve the problem of divergent standards? Further, in the case of MERCOSUR, can it really be considered a non-supranational governance instrument? In the next sections, I define a common market under a Regional Integration Agreement (RIA), I then address the relationship between standards, technical barriers, and the integration of goods markets, especially in view of the potential trade-off between liberalization and heterogeneity. Finally, I consider the possibility of building a MERCOSUR common market without supranational institutions.