The Decay of Commercial Multilateralism in South America

INTRODUCTION Commercial multilateralism is losing spaces in South America to regional and bilateral agreements due to the lack of normative and empirical legitimacy of the World Trade Organization (WTO). This developing process is analyzed in the following article from the conceptual context of parts of the extensive and rich work by Julia Barragán. Her work also contributes with tools for acknowledging the strength of formal and informal institutions, value categorization and the relevance of normative goals in the search of better development options for South America. In the content, institutions are considered, as well as nominal and underlying dimensions, as the game rules which in negotiation define the commercial interaction structure; besides, they offer a causal link with the limits of the possible universe of expected utilities by the actors involved, consecration of acknowledged values and defining the goals that may establish a clean game in free trade agreements. Most countries of South America have begun negotiation, subscription and operation processes for commercial agreements. Most of these negotiations are bilateral and, to a lesser degree, regional in scope. These agreements start