Mercosur

Mercosur or Mercosul (Spanish: Mercado Común del Sur, Portuguese: Mercado Comum do Sul, Guarani: Ñemby Ñemuha, English: Southern Common Market) is an economic and political agreement among Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela. 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 Guaraní, Portuguese 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 originated in 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.

Full membership for Venezuela became effective on 31 July 2012, after the suspension of Paraguay on 22 June 2012 for the violation of the Democratic Clause of Mercosur (see Impeachment of Fernando Lugo). Beforehand, Venezuela had signed a membership agreement on 17 June 2006 but its accession was blocked by the Senate of Paraguay.

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.

Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru currently have associate member status.