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Mercosur or Mercosul (Spanish: Mercado Común del Sur, Portuguese: Mercado Comum do Sul, Guarani: Ñemby Ñemuha, English: Southern Common Market) is a Regional Trade Agreement (RTA) among Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, founded in 1991 by the Treaty of Asunción, which was later amended and updated by the 1994 Treaty of Ouro Preto. Its purpose is to promote free trade and the fluid movement of goods, people, and currency. Mercosur/Mercosul origins trace back to 1985 when Presidents Raúl Alfonsín of Argentina and José Sarney of Brazil signed the Argentina-Brazil Integration and Economics Cooperation Program or PICE (Spanish: Programa de Integración y Cooperación Económica Argentina-Brasil, Portuguese: Programa de Integração e Cooperação Econômica Argentina-Brasil). Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru currently have associate member status. Venezuela signed a membership agreement on 17 June 2006, but before becoming a full member its entry has to be ratified by the Paraguayan and the Brazilian parliaments. The founding of the Mercosur Parliament was agreed at the December 2004 presidential summit. It should have 18 representatives from each country by 2010. Role and potential: Some South Americans see Mercosur as giving the capability to combine resources to balance the activities of other global economic powers, especially the NAFTA and the European Union. The organization could also potentially pre-empt the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA); however, over half of the current Mercosur member countries rejected the FTAA proposal at the IV Cumbre de las Américas (IV Summit of the Americas) in Argentina in 2005. However, development of the Union of South American Nations seems to suggest that the countries of South America are not opposed to regional integration but merely wary of the United States-backed FTAA. The development of Mercosur was arguably weakened by the collapse of the Argentine economy in 2001 and it has still seen internal conflicts over trade policy, between Brazil and Argentina, Argentina and Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil, etc. The free movement of individuals has been a matter of practical controversy, as Argentina unilaterally charges a 5 Pesos fee from Mercosur citizens going through the country.[citation needed] In addition, many obstacles are to be addressed before the development of a common currency in Mercosur. In December 2004 it signed a cooperation agreement with the Andean Community trade bloc (CAN) and they published a joint letter of intention for a future negotiations towards integrating all of South America. The prospect of increased political integration within the organization, as per the European Union and advocated by some, is still uncertain. The bloc comprises a population of more than 263 million people, and the combined Gross Domestic Product of the full-member nations is in excess of 2.78 trillion dollars a year (PPP) according to IMF numbers, making Mercosur the fifth largest economy in the World.