The EU is flawed, but the idea of social solidarity is strong there. The reason why so many Americans are intrigued and exicted by the EU, is because in the EU there seems to be an alternative to the neo-liberal globalization that we find in NAFTA, which is more of an investment protection agreement than a trade bloc.  

NAFTA could learn a lot from the EU.  Labor and  environmental issues need to be at the table when we are discussing pulling down barriers between countries.

The EU has succeeded in elevating 2 of the poor four countries (Ireland, Spain, Portgal, and Greece) to solid middle class status, even more so true of Ireland.  How? Cohesion and structural funds, development aid, all of this is missing from NAFTA.  

The EU for its failings appears to have at the least a soul, a basic sense of responsibility to raise up those who live in it's borders.  NAFTA keeps people down, it invokes Chapter 11 tribunal to overturn state and local laws that protect workers and the environment. The EU has a strong committment to democracy and civil society.  NAFTA and the FTAA have no such component.  Columbia, where  trade unionist are hunted and shot down like dogs in the street, will undoubtedly be admitted to the FTAA without an effort to take corrective action against the paramilitaries that kill unionists.

Mercosur has local state interests versus foreign private interests. They seem to be moving in the "right" direction.

Latin America stands at a fork in the road.  To the left is the path of Mercosur, to the right is the FTAA.  Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Uruguay have all chosen the left for.  Columbia alone seems destined to take the right fork.  Mexico, Central America, and the Andean Republics are the subject of a fight for hearts and minds right now.   If Mexico turns to the left, I have no doubt that there will be American troops on the border in short order.  

This is the Southern Bloc that we've been expecting for the past 20 years.  If the US takes a hard stand against Mercosur, the push towards politcal, and military cooperation will be all the more profound.  If the US invaded Venezuela, would the Bolivians send troops, how about Brazil?  What myriad opportunities for regional war lie in wait with the psychopaths in the White House?  There's a refrain that they aren't crazy enough to do that, whatever that may be, they are that insane.  They have 3 more years for provocations and idiocy in the Latin America.  I hope we're lucky enough that they don't light a fire they can't control.  With our friends in the UK joining in, there's only more opporunity for trouble.

I have to go now, I'll be back when I get home, there's more here.

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg