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EU - Mercosur ("The Market of the South")

The EU is in favour of strengthened regional integration of the Mercosur countries - Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Venezuela later joined Mercosur as a full member on 4 July 2006, however they then left early in 2007.  At present, the relationship between the EU and the Mercosur countries is based on the ‘EU-Mercosur Inter-regional Framework Co-operation Agreement’, signed on 15 December 1995, which fully entered into force on 1 July 1999. The EU remains the largest trading partner for Mercosur and is the largest foreign investor into the region.

The main objective of this Framework Agreement is the preparation of negotiations for an ‘Inter-regional Association Agreement’ between the EU and Mercosur, which includes three main pillars - political dialogue, trade liberalisation and co-operation. The trade element of the agreement aims to create free trade in goods and services between the EU and the Mercosur region, in line with WTO rules.

The agreement under negotiation is broad based covering Technical Barriers to Trade, Competition, Customs, Sanitary and Phytosanitary regulations, Non Agricultural Market Access, Intellectual Property Rights, Government Procurement, Investment and Services.

More information on EU-Mercosur can be found under the European Commission's External Relations website (see external links on right of this page).

Contact:

Please note that if you are looking for help with exporting from the UK to the Mercosur countries you should contact UK Trade and Investment, the Government's advice service to exporters and inward investors (see related links on right hand side).

If you are looking for help on importing from the Mercosur countries into the UK, please contact the export promotion agency of the country in which you reside, or for specific details on tariff and duty charges  please contact HMRC - Revenue and Customs (see related links on right hand side).

For all other queries about the EU-Mercosur negotiations please contact:

Sue Blackwell,       e-mail: Sue.Blackwell@berr.gsi.gov.uk or

Jonathan Tostevin, e-mail: Jonathan.Tostevin@berr.gsi.gov.uk