Complementación productiva en la industria automotriz en el MERCOSUR. El caso uruguayo

Three periods could be found in the development of automobile industry in Uruguay since the seventieth: the first with the production oriented to the local market as result of import substitution policies; the second (since the nineties and regional integration) where automobile production was exported to the region and automobile importations supplied the local market; and the third, since the crisis, when production fell dramatically and a new stage appears where new alliances and activities emerge. This paper analyzes different issues about automobile industry in Uruguay. It outlines that the future of this industry has a great grade of incertitude that is associated with the regulations that will be adopted in the framework of MERCOSUR agreement and with the bilateral agreements that Uruguay could sign with its neighbors in the period previous to the common automobile policy. This common policy must go forward an intra-zone free trade and common rules with third countries. In this context, it is important the stability of agreements and rules that support credibility and investment processes which allow significant increases in productive capacity.