Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR)

The Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR for its Spanish initials) is an integration process of the South American region, constituted by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela (State Parties), while Bolivia (in the process of accession), Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru and Suriname are Associated States.

Since its beginnings, this dynamic and open process chases the objective of providing a common space to create commercial and investment opportunities through competitive integration of national economies into the international market.

As a result, the organism has established multiple agreements with countries or country groups, these being the Associate States. These participate in activities and bloc reunions and have commercial preferences with State Parties. The MERCOSUR has also signed commercial, political or cooperative agreements with a diverse amount of nations and organisms in all five continents.

The main products that the MERCOSUR exports to the rest of the world are soy, petroleum, iron, corn and soy flour, and the main destinations are Asia, the European Union and North America.

On 1991, after the Treaty of Asunción for the Constitution of a Common Market was signed, the creation of the MERCOSUR was established. The creation of this organism implies:

• Free circulation of goods, services and productive factors among countries, through the elimination of customs duties and non-tariff restrictions on the movement of goods and any other equivalent measure.
• The establishment of a common external tariff and the adoption of a common commercial policy in relation to third States or groups of States and the coordination of positions in regional and international economic and trade forums.
• The coordination of macroeconomic and sectorial policies among the States Parties: foreign, agricultural, industrial, fiscal, monetary, exchange and capital, services, customs, transport and communications trade and others that may be agreed, in order to ensure adequate conditions of competition among the States Parties.
• The commitment of the State Parties to harmonize their legislation in the relevant areas, in order to strengthen the integration process.

Operations

The Council of the Common Market (CMC), the Common Market Group (GMC) and the Mercosur Trade Commission (CCM) are the three main bodies that make consensual decisions, on the presence of each of the State Parties. The CMC seeks to integrate the policies of the Member States, the GMC reviews the daily operations of the bloc, and the CCM is responsible for the administration of common trade policy instruments.

Contact

1992 Dr. Luis Piera St. - 1st floor

Montevideo, Uruguay

Zip code: 11200

Tel.: (+598) 2412 9024

References

https://www.mercosur.int