MERCOSUR Group

MERCOSUR Group Latest News

Recently, India and MERCOSUR signed the First Additional Protocol to the India–MERCOSUR Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) to facilitate acceptance of electronic Certificates of Origin. 

About MERCOSUR Group

• The Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR for its Spanish initials) is a South American regional economic organization.
• It is the fourth largest integrated market after the European Union (EU), North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and ASEAN.
• It was created in 1991 by signing the Treaty of Asunción.
• Objective: Free movement of goods, services, capital and people and it became a customs union in January 1995. 
• Member countries
  • It originally comprised Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay as its members. 
  • Bolivia and Venezuela joined it later. (Venezuela has been suspended since December 1, 2016).
  • Mercosur also counts Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and Suriname as associate members.
  • Headquarters: Montevideo, Uruguay.
  • Its official working languages are Spanish and Portuguese.
• Governance of MERCOSUR Group
  • Common Market Council:  It is the bloc’s highest decision-making body, and provides a high-level forum for coordinating foreign and economic policy. 
  • The group consists of the foreign and economic ministers of each member state, or their equivalent, and decisions are made by consensus. 
  • The group’s presidency rotates every six months among its full members.

India and MERCOSUR

• The India-MERCOSUR PTA was signed on 25 January 2004 and entered into force on 1 June 2009.
• The Agreement provides preferential tariff concessions on 450 tariff lines by India and 452 tariff lines by the MERCOSUR side.

Source: PIB

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