El Sector Agroalimentario en los procesos de Integración Económica: una mirada a la asociación Venezuela-MERCOSUR

Through a documentary-descriptive and quantitative-analytical research, supported by calculation and analysis of position and commercial dynamics indicators, this article examines, in general, the relationship between agriculture and economic integration as interdependent variables that affect the food security performance, and studies the sectorial impact of Venezuela-MERCOSUR integration, in particular. To do this, it analyzes the role of the agricultural variable within integration agreements, characterizes the elements that give sensitivity to the agri-food sector and condition its special treatment in regionalism experiences, and evaluates the agri-food trade performance of Venezuela-MERCOSUR association in a lapse from 2001 to 2017, when Venezuela was suspended from the block as a result of Ushuaia Protocol application with just five years as a State Party. Among the main findings of this work the following stand out: 1) agri-food trade compatibility or complementarity existing between Venezuela and MERCOSUR produced an inter-industrial exchange; 2) Venezuela's role in the integration process was limited to serving as a recipient market for the block's exports, increasing its dependence on Mercosurian agri-food imports in contradiction with the concept of agri-food sovereignty; 3) dynamism of imports flow from MERCOSUR directly depended on oil income and was maintained until oil renting allowed it to continue paying its partners; 4) in the agricultural sector, integration advanced only at the commercial level, creating trade to supply Venezuelan market, and missed opportunities for cooperation and good agricultural practices implementation emanating from the experience of partners (net exporters of agricultural goods); 5) Venezuelan agri-food sector still has advantages over the block in items such as fish and sea products, aquiculture, cocoa, rum and others.