Mercosur: ambitious policies, poor practices∗

Mercosur has achieved important advances like the removal of intra-bloc tariff and non-tariff barriers and the establishment of a common external tariff for many products. However, its ambitious plans to deepen and widen the integration process comprising harmonisation of policies in areas like competition policy, government procurement, technical barriers, phytosanitary measures, free trade in services and co-ordination of macroeconomic policies have not been implemented yet. This paper examines Mercosur policies in relation to tariffs and other non-tariff barriers comparing them with their implementation, in order to examine the extent to which the proposals have actually been fulfilled