Main characteristics

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The Southern Common Market (Mercado Común del Sur, MERCOSUR) is a South American economic, political and trade bloc established by the Treaty of Asunción in 1991. The official languages are Spanish, Portuguese and Guarani, although Guarani is not as present as the other two languages. 

Created to improve relations between Argentina and Brazil, Mercosur implemented a common external tariff (CET) and eliminated customs duties in order to establish the free movement of goods, services and factors of production between countries. 
From: Wanafrica news

List of members
Mercosur is formed by 4 countries:
  • Argentina
  • Brazil
  • Uruguay
  • Paraguay


Venezuela had been a fully member until December 1, 2016, when it was suspended. However, Bolivia is a state in process of incorporation.
The associate countries of Mercosur are Chile, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Surinam and Guyana. Mexico and New Zealand are observer states.
From: Mercosur int
According to the 1st Article from "Ouro Preto Protocol", about the institutional structure of Mercosur, the decision-maker institutions, are the Common Market Council, the Common Market Group and Mercosur Trade Commission.

Common Market Council 
It’s the highest-level agency of Mercosur with the authority to conduct its policy. The Council is composed of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of all five countries. The members shall meet at least one a year and the decisions shall be made by consensus. 

Common Market Group
It’s the executive body of Mercosur and it’s also coordinated by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the member states. Its functions are to cause compliance with the Asuncion Treaty and to take the resolutions required for the implementation of the decisions made by the Council. Moreover, it can start practical measures for trade opening and negotiation of agreements with nonmember states. It has the authority to organize, coordinate and supervise Work subgroups and it is made up of four permanent members and four alternates from each member state representing: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Economy and the Central Bank. They shall meet at least once every quarter. 

Administration Office
Its main functions are:
  • Be and official archive of Mercosur documents
  • Publish and diffuse the pacts adopted by Mercosur
  • Organize the logistic aspects of the meetings from the Common Market Council and the Common Market Group. 

Mercosur's parliament (Parlasur)
Established in 2006, in substitution of the Joint Parliamentary Committee, the Parlasur tries to create a balance in the common space reflected by the pluralism and the diversity of the regions. It also contributes to the democratization processes of each of the members in order to develop a process of integration of its regulations.
From: Conclusión - Diario digital

Trade Commission
It assists the Common Market Group and it is in charge of the applications of the Common External Tariff as well as to tracking and checking the topics related to common political trade. 

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Origins and History Of Mercusor

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Mercosur can be said to have begun with the 1979 Tripartite Agreement with Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. This agreement was carried out to resolve disputes around South American Water reserves. Notably the Itaipu Dam and the Parana River. This was very important because according to Gian Luca Gardini, this event was "the first manifestation" of these relations (Gardini, Making Sense Of Rapproachment Between Argentina And Brazil, 1979-82, 2006) . This in turn had lead to both Argentina and Brazil's governments discussing in more detail on measures of integration. Which can be backed up further in the 1980's because Brazil could see the benefit of international co-operation with Argentina from a military standpoint due to the shift towards a militaristic international focus which shifted further with the Constituent Assembly (Mariano, 2012) . This is very important because within this institution South American integration was an issue that was brought to ...
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Comparison with another region: the ALBA

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Nowadays, Mercosur is not the only trade organization in South America. We can also find others like the Andean Community, the CARICOM (Caribbean Community) or the ALBA-TCP (Bolivarian Alliance for the People of Our America – People’s Trade Treaty). In this section, some main differences and similarities between Mercosur and the ALBA-TCP will be explained. *Suspended country ** Country in process of integration Source: Mercosur.int Source: Alterinfo.net Countries and languages The ALBA is constituted by Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Nicaragua, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Venezuela (Ecuador made part of it in the past), as we can see in the second picture. Mercosur, as it has already been explained and as we can see in the first picture, is constituted by Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay (Venezuela is currently suspended from its membership and Bolivia is in the process of integration, so it...
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References

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The references are in APA format. Books Arnaud, V. (1996).  Mercosur: UE, NAFTA y los procesos de integración regional . Buenos Aires: Abeledo-Perrot The book, written by an Argentinian politologist specialised in international relations, contains lots of information about the cooperation between the members of Mercosur and also makes a comparison between Mercosur and the EU or NAFTA. Barraza, A., & Jardel, S. (1998).  Mercosur: aspectos jurídicos y económicos  (pp. 91-166). Buenos Aires: Ediciones Ciudad Argentina. This book explains the main economic features of the region. However, as it’s dated from 1998 (20 years back), we can only use its information to talk about the initial trade patterns between the countries but not about their current exchanges. Díaz Barrado, C. (2009).  Contribuciones de la educación a la integración regional: el caso del Mercosur educativo (pp. 13-20). [Madrid]: Plaza y Valdés. This book explains the e...
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