QUITO (Reuters) – Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa announced on Friday that the country would join the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) Trade Agreement, a trade pact promoted by Venezuela to oppose U.S. influence in the region.

Correa, a staunch critic of Washington, argued that among the benefits of being part of the treaty was a common stance before international organizations that he said hurt Latin America, as well as maintaining a greater greater regional integration.

According to the presidency, the official announcement will be made on Saturday, during the usual intervention of the president.

“The more regional integration instances we can register, the better, as long as they go to benefit the country,” Correa said in a radio interview, according to the presidency’s website.

ALBA, made up of Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Venezuela, was created in 2004 by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro, in opposition to the buried proposal to create the FTAA, a free trade zone from Canada to Argentina.

“We must go beyond this integrationist vision reduced to only trade to support each other, to have mutual energy projects to improve trade (of) development and not a neoliberal trade based on competition”, concluded Correa.

Just a year ago, Ecuador refused to be part of the trade pact, which at the time was interpreted as a sign of distancing between the policies of Venezuela and the government of Quito.

President Chávez has suggested that countries in the region abandon multilateral credit organizations, such as the Inter-American Development Bank, and join ALBA instead.