European Commission Directorate-General for Trade

Mercosur

The EU is currently negotiating a trade agreement with Mercosur as part of the overall negotiation for a bi-regional Association Agreement which also cover a political and a cooperation pillar.

These negotiations with Mercosur were officially relaunched at the EU-Mercosur summit in Madrid on 17 May 2010. The objective is to negotiate a comprehensive trade agreement, covering not only trade in industrial and agricultural goods but also services, improvement of rules on government procurement, intellectual property, customs and trade facilitation, technical barriers to trade.

Nine negotiation rounds (the last one from 22 to 26 October 2012) have taken place since then.

Until now, rounds have focused on the part of the agreement related to rules and the two regions are still working on the preparation of their market access offers. No date has been set yet for the exchange of market access offers.

Trade picture

• The EU is Mercosur's first trading partner, accounting for 20% of Mercosur's total trade.
• Mercosur is the EU's 8th most important trading partner, accounting for 3% of EU's total trade. EU's exports to the region have steadily increased over the last years, going up from € 28 billion in 2007 to € 45 billlion in 2011.
• Mercour's biggest exports to the EU are made of agricultural products (48% of total exports) while the EU mostly exports manufactured products to Mercosur and notably machinery and transport equipment (49% of total exports) and chemicals (21% of total exports).
• The EU is also a major exporter of commercial services to Mercosur (€13.4 bn in 2010) as well as the biggest foreign investor in the region with a stock of foreign direct investment that has steadily increased over the past years and which now amount to €236 billion in 2010 compared to € 130 billion in 2000.

EU and Mercosur

Mercosur was established in 1991 and encompasses Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela which officially joined in July 2012. Paraguay is temporarily suspended from Mercosur since June 2012.

The EU has bilateral Partnership and Cooperation agreements with Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

All Mercosur countries currently benefit from the GSP scheme, while Paraguay also benefits from GSP+.

Trading with Mercosur

• Importing into the EU from Mercosur
• Exporting from the EU to Mercosur
• The EU is present on the ground in Mercosur (EU Delegations in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela )
• Trade relations are part of the EU's overall political and economic relations  with Mercosur
• Mercosur official website
• Sustainability impact assessment on EU-Mercosur Association Agreement Negotiations