According to experts, to form a successful trading bloc, the members should have some elements of similarity. For instance, the chances of a bloc surviving increase if the members have similar levels of per capita GNP, geographic proximity, similar or compatible trading and political regimes. Typically, the underdeveloped or the developing economies will have arrangements that are modelled to support import substitution and regional development.
An industrialised or transition economy, on the other hand, will have an outward policy aimed more at boosting rather than controlling global trade. The conditions of agreements are generally regional and might even aim at reorganisation of certain industries. For example, the MERCOSUR (which is a bloc consisting Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay), Brazil and Argentina have an au-tomobile trade treaty under which each individual firm has to balance its Brazil-Argentina production and trades. This enables both countries to have plants and hence the profits are rationally distributed.