Mercosur To Establish New Economic Zone

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

04 August 2014

Latin American trade bloc Mercosur discussed at its 46th Summit on July 29, 2014, proposals to create an economic zone with the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), Petrocaribe, and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

At the meeting the heads of the Mercosur states – Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela – agreed to invite ALBA, Petrocaribe, and CARICOM to start a dialogue on the proposed economic zone.

ALBA is a political and economic alliance between Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Venezuela and Saint Lucia. Petrocaribe, meanwhile, is an oil alliance between Venezuela and a number of Caribbean states.

As well as discussing an economic zone, which would reduce tax barriers to trade and investment, another topic discussed at the summit was progress towards a free trade agreement (FTA) between the European Union and Mercosur, whose members are Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

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