MERCOSUR

About

On 23 August 2019, Member States of the European Free Trade Association (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland) and of Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) concluded in substance the negotiations on a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement.

Further details on the EFTA-Mercosur free trade agreement can be found in a Chapter by Chapter Fact sheet on the free trade agreement.

Key facts

Population

Argentina:

46,234,830
Brazil:

215,313,500
Paraguay:

6,780,740
Uruguay:

3,422,790

GDP

Argentina:

$ 631,133.38 M
Brazil:

$ 1,920,095.78 M
Paraguay:

$ 41,722.30 M
Uruguay:

$ 71,144.15 M

Date of Signature of the Agreement: Negotiations ongoing

Date of Entry Into Force: N/A

Imports to EFTA States

EUR 2,807 M:

Argentina:

EUR 121 M
Brazil:

EUR 2,586 M
Paraguay:

EUR 23 M
Uruguay:

EUR 77 M

Exports from EFTA States

EUR 4,583 M:

Argentina:

EUR 742 M
Brazil:

EUR 3,643 M
Paraguay:

EUR 20 M
Uruguay:

EUR 178 M

Information about agreement

Summary

As a comprehensive and broad-based Free Trade Agreement, the EFTA-Mercosur Agreement covers trade in goods, trade in services, investment, intellectual property rights, government procurement, competition, trade and sustainable development, legal and horizontal issues including dispute settlement.

Mercosur is an important trading partner for EFTA and will allow EFTA companies to benefit from privileged access to a market of over 260 million consumers. Current EFTA bilateral trade in goods with Mercosur totalled €5,8 billion in 2018, with EFTA exports worth €3,7 billion and Mercosur imports for €2,1 billion. Thus, the new Free Trade Agreement will allow EFTA exporters to gain from progressive tariff cuts and ensure a level playing field with its main competitors in this important market.

Negotiations towards the comprehensive Free Trade Agreement were preceded by a Joint Declaration on Cooperation, signed in December 2000, under which an exploratory dialogue with a view to possible future trade negotiations was initiated in March 2015 and concluded in January 2017. This was followed by the launch of negotiations with a first round in June 2017 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Since then, 9 rounds of negotiations were held.