Chilean President Michele Bachelet recently said that Chile would be "back stepping" by joining Mercosur and that the FTAA is more in her country's interests.

"That's why we are so enthusiastic and push so hard for a Free Trade Association of the Americas, FTAA", added Ms Bachelet in a long weekend interview with Buenos Aires daily La Nación.

Mercosur, (the Common Market of the South) is a regional trade alliance and customs union which is widely viewed as "more equal and less predatory than the...FTAA."

"The difficulty has always been that Chile has economic reforms in place. Becoming a full member of Mercosur would mean back stepping on those reforms," Bachelet added.