Business Guide to Mercosur Author:The Economist Intelligence Unit Created in 1991, Mercosur, the Common Market of the South, is the most important free-trade grouping in Latin America today. Encompassing four founding members (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay) and two associates (Chile and Bolivia), its sheer size alone--a population of 220m and more than $1trn in economic output--presents major im... more »plications for global companies and their strategies for the Latin American region. Information about the operations of the trading bloc and its overall market potential, however, is scant. This makes it more difficult for multinational companies to formulate realistic business plans to take advantage of the opportunities emerging from Mercosur's consolidation. Business guide to Mercosur aims to remedy this. The report provides a comprehensive overview of the trading bloc and its members, market characteristics, internal structure and regulatory framework. It also responds to the following key questions: How is regional integration evolving and where are the business opportunities? How does Mercosur function? What are the obstacles for the future? How do the individual countries stack up? It also looks at some of the ways companies are already adapting their investment decisions and operations to the new trading environment. More than sixty tables and figures reveal market characteristics of the economic integration area and its member countries. This publication, part of a series of reports examining major issues and trends affecting foreign investors in Latin America, was prepared by the Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) New York-based Latin America publishing division. It builds on the EIU's extensive research and forecasting capabilities on Latin America as well as its network of contributors in the region.« less