Mercosur : Ask Biography

General information

Local name

Name

Administrative center

Headquarters

Largest city

Brazil São Paulo

Official languages

3
title=3
Guarani
Spanish
Portuguese

Ethnic groups

60% White
35% Multiracial
5% Black
1% Amerindian1

Government

Government

Intergovernmental

Presidency

Uruguay Uruguay (pro tempore)

Treaty of Asunción

26 March 1991

Protocol of Ouro Preto

16 December 1994

Geography

Total Area

4933535.1 sq mi (12781179 km2) (2nd1)

Demography

Population Est.

267386382 (4th1)

Density (pop.)

20.86/km² (154th1) (54/sq mi)

Economy

GDP PPP

U$ 2.895 trillion (5th1)

GDP (PPP) per capita

U$ 10,858 (70th1)

Other information

HDI

(+) 0.827 (2007) (high) (50th1)

Currency

4
title=4
Argentina Argentine peso (ARS)
Brazil Brazilian real (BRL)
Paraguay Paraguayan guaraní (PYG)
Uruguay Uruguayan peso (UYU)

Home | Country | Mercosur

Mercosur or Mercosul ( , , , ) is an economic and political agreement among Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Founded in 1991 by the Treaty of Asunción, which was later amended and updated by the 1994 Treaty of Ouro Preto. Its purpose is to promote free trade and the fluid movement of goods, people, and currency. The official languages are Portuguese, Guaraní and Spanish. It has been updated, amended, and changed many times since. It is now a full customs union. Mercosur and the Andean Community of Nations are customs unions that are components of a continuing process of South American integration connected to the Union of South American Nations.

Mercosur origins trace back to 1985 when Presidents Raúl Alfonsín of Argentina and José Sarney of Brazil signed the Argentina-Brazil Integration and Economics Cooperation Program or PICE (Portuguese: Programa de Integração e Cooperação Econômica Argentina-Brasil, Spanish: Programa de Integración y Cooperación Económica Argentina-Brasil). The program also proposed the Gaucho as a currency for regional trade.

Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru currently have associate member status. Venezuela signed a membership agreement on 17 June 2006. The founding of the Mercosur Parliament was agreed at the December 2004 presidential summit. It should have 18 representatives from each country by 2010, regardless of population.