query: Is Bolivia a poor country?
passage: Poverty in South America
Poverty in South America is high in most countries. All of the countries in South America are greatly affected by poverty to some extent. From 1999 to 2010, poverty dropped from 43.8% to 31.8%.[1] The countries that have the highest rates are Bolivia, Colombia and Venezuela.[2] All of these countries are trying to reduce poverty, with varying degrees of effort and success. However, in recent years most South American countries have experienced great economic decline. Thanks to this improvement in the economy, action is being taken by most South American countries to reduce poverty and improve the life quality of the people. New infrastructure is being built and more housing is being provided. Education is also a major concern, and the governments are spending millions of dollars in funding schools.
passage: Economy of Bolivia
Bolivia's trade with neighboring countries is growing, in part because of several regional preferential trade agreements it has negotiated. Bolivia was a founding member of the Andean Group, a South American organization designed to promote trade among Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina, the United States, and Venezuela. Subsequently renamed the Andean Community of Nations, the organization has succeeded in increasing intra-South American trade. Trade among member countries rose from US$3.6 billion in 1991 to US$10.3 billion in 2003. Bolivia also belongs to the Common Market of the South (Mercado Común del Sur—Mercosur). Bolivia became an associate member in March 1997 in order to open investment opportunities with the founding Mercosur countries (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay), as well as other Mercosur associate members (Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela). The agreement provides for the gradual creation of a free trade area covering at least 80% of the trade between the parties over a 10-year period, though economic crises in the region have derailed progress at integration. The U.S. Andean Trade Preference and Drug Enforcement Act (ATPDEA) allows (allowed?) numerous Bolivian products to enter the United States free of duty on a unilateral basis, including alpaca and llama products and, subject to a quota, cotton textiles. Bolivia conducted more than US$1 billion in trade with Mercosur countries in 2003. As a result of negotiations initiated in 1999 on a possible South American Free Trade Area (SAFTA), Mercosur and the Andean Community of Nations announced in December 2004 that they would merge, creating a Union of South American Nations modeled after the European Union.