Título
Avances y retrocesos en la integración productiva de la trama automotriz en el Mercosur : tensiones del regionalismo en la Argentina en el período 2002-2015
Advances and setbacks in the productive integration of the automotive sector in Mercosur : tensions of regionalism in Argentina in the period 2002-2015
Abstract
The general objective of this research is to characterize those factors that conditioned the development of the productive integration of the automotive chain of Mercosur in the recent period. To do so, we first identify the transformations of the global accumulation regime since the 1970s and the regulatory changes that conditioned the strategies of transnational firms and states. Secondly, we characterize the global automotive value chain and its governance structure to evaluate the upgrading conditions of the countries of the periphery in the framework of the accumulation strategies of the leading firms in the sector. Then we present dispersion indicators of world vehicle production that allow us to assess changes in the global industrial geography and understand the place that Mercosur occupies in the assembly companies' strategies. Subsequently, we characterize the regional integration regime of the sector in Mercosur to understand the regulatory framework and the incentive system in which the firms' regionalization strategies are developed. Then, we characterize the regional automotive value chain and the bilateral exchange between Argentina and Brazil, identifying the asymmetries between both countries and the dependence of the Argentine segment on the import of key parts and components. Finally, we analyze the tensions between the accumulation strategies of the automotive chambers of Argentina and the political project of developing a deep regional integration and we make an empirical measurement of the productive integration of the Argentine segment in its link with the main commercial partners. We use the international political economy approach, which allows us to update the discussions on dependency relationships and the conditions of autonomy of regional projects in the framework of the development of global value chains.