Southern Cone Common Market (Mercosur/Mercosul)

Nemby Nemuha

Mercado Común do Cono Sur

Mercado Comum de Cone Sul

Established: By treaty signed March 26, 1991, in Asunción, Paraguay, by the presidents of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay.

Purpose: To establish a regional “common market of the southern cone” through the harmonization of policies in agriculture, industry, finance, transportation, and other sectors; to promote economic development through expanded extraregional trade and the pursuit of foreign investment.

Headquarters: Montevideo, Uruguay.

Principal Organs: Council of the Common Market, Common Market Group, Joint Parliamentary Commission, Secretariat.

Web site: www.mercosur.int (in Spanish and Portuguese only)

Secretary General: None—Secretary General Samuel Pinheiro Guimaraes resigned in the middle of the 2012 annual summit. As of November 2012, no successor had been named.

Membership (5): Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela.

Associate Members (5): Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru.

Observer (1): ...