MERCOSUR

South America's attempt at a common market, built on a reconciliation between two countries that had been preparing for war with each other. Argentina and Brazil had a long rivalry and competing nuclear programmes; their return to democracy in the 1980s produced a deliberate rapprochement including mutual inspection of nuclear facilities, and Mercosur, founded by the Treaty of Asuncion in 1991 with Paraguay and Uruguay, is the economic expression of that settlement. The design was ambitious - a customs union with a common external tariff, aiming at a common market with free movement of goods, services, capital and people. In practice it has worked partially: intra-bloc trade rose substantially, but the common tariff is riddled with exceptions, and the two large members have repeatedly imposed restrictions on each other during their own economic crises. The bloc's size gives it weight in negotiation, which is why an agreement with the European Union was pursued for over twenty years before a deal was concluded. Venezuela joined in 2012 and was suspended in 2016 over democratic standards, using a clause that conditions membership on constitutional government. Several other South American states are associate members. Its institutions are deliberately intergovernmental rather than supranational. It has a parliament with limited powers. Its members hold around 270 million people. The bloc was founded by the Treaty of Asuncion in March 1991. Its founding members were Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Bolivia later acceded as a full member. Its administrative secretariat is in Montevideo. Portuguese and Spanish are both official languages, along with Guarani.

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