Mercosur

Mercado Común del Sur Mercado Comum do Sul Ñemby Ñemuha Southern Common Market
Emblem
Motto:  "Nuestro norte es el Sur" (Spanish) "Nosso norte é o Sul" (Portuguese) "Yvy mba'e yvate ojehegui" (Guaraní) "Our North is the South"
Dark green: full members. Red: suspended members. Blue: candidate members.
Headquarters	Montevideo
Largest cities	São Paulo Buenos Aires Rio de Janeiro
Official languages	Spanish Portuguese Guarani
Ethnic groups (2011b)	65% white 25% multiraciala 7% black 3% Asian/Amerindian
Type	Intergovernmental
Membership	4 members  Argentina  Brazil  Paraguay  Uruguay 1 suspended  Venezuela 5 associated  Chile  Bolivia (Protocol of Accession, 2012)  Peru  Colombia  Ecuador 2 observers  New Zealand  Mexico
Leaders
•	Mauricio Macri
Establishment
• Treaty of Asunción	26 March 1991
•	16 December 1994
Area
• Total	19,326,961 km2 (7,462,181 sq mi)
• Water (%)	1.0
Population
• 2011 estimate	288,996,820 (4thb)
• Density	14.9/km2 (38.6/sq mi) (195thb)
GDP (PPP)	2013 estimate
• Total	US$4.171 trillion (5thb)
• Per capita	US$15,219 (58thb)
HDI (2011)	0.731 high · 76thb
Currency	4 currencies  (ARS)  Peso  (BRL)  Real  (PYG)  Guaraní  (UYU)  Peso
Pardo, Mestizo, etc. Considering Mercosur as a single entity. Pro tempore.

Mercosur or Mercosul (Spanish: Mercado Común del Sur, Portuguese: Mercado Comum do Sul, Guarani: Ñemby Ñemuha, Southern Common Market) is a sub-regional bloc. Its full members are Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela (which was suspended on December 1, 2016).

Its associate countries are Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Suriname. Observer countries are New Zealand and Mexico.

Its purpose is to promote free trade and the fluid movement of goods, people, and currency. The official languages are Spanish, Portuguese and Guarani. It has been updated, amended, and changed many times since. It is now a full customs union and a trading bloc. 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 was established in 1991 by the Treaty of Asunción, which was later amended and updated by the 1994 Treaty of Ouro Preto. Mercosur originated in 1988, 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.