Mercosur in the context of Chile

An international organization, also called an intergovernmental organization (IGO) or an international institution, is an association of states established by a treaty or other type of instrument governed by international law to pursue the common aim of its member states. An IGO possesses its own legal personality separate from its member states and can enter into legally binding agreements with other IGOs or with other states. The United Nations, Council of Europe, African Union, Organization of American States, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Mercosur, and BRICS are examples of IGOs. International organizations are composed of primarily member states, but may also include other entities, such as other international organizations, firms, and nongovernmental organizations. Additionally, entities may hold observer status. Under international law, although treaties are typically between states, intergovernmental organizations also have the capacity to enter into treaties. The traditional view was that only states were subjects of international law, but with the founding of the United Nations, that view expanded to include intergovernmental organizations.

Within the international relations literature, international organizations facilitate cooperation between states by reducing transaction costs, providing information, making commitments more credible, establishing focal points for coordination, facilitating the principle of reciprocity, extending the shadow of the future, and enabling interlinkages of issues, which raises the cost of noncompliance. States may comply with the decisions of international organizations, even when they do not want to, for rational cost-benefit calculations (to reap concrete rewards of future cooperation and avoid punishment) and normative reasons (social learning and socialization).

A free trade area is the region encompassing a trade bloc whose member countries have signed a free trade agreement (FTA). Such agreements involve cooperation between at least two countries to reduce trade barriers, import quotas and tariffs, and to increase trade of goods and services with each other. If natural persons are also free to move between the countries, in addition to a free trade agreement, it would also be considered an open border. It can be considered the second stage of economic integration.

Customs unions are a special type of free trade area. All such areas have internal arrangements which parties conclude in order to liberalize and facilitate trade among themselves. The crucial difference between customs unions and free trade areas is their approach to third parties. While a customs union requires all parties to establish and maintain identical external tariffs with regard to trade with non-parties, parties to a free trade area are not subject to this requirement. Instead, they may establish and maintain whatever tariff regime applying to imports from non-parties as deemed necessary. In a free trade area without harmonized external tariffs, to eliminate the risk of trade deflection, parties will adopt a system of preferential rules of origin.

Fortaleza (/ˌfɔːrtəˈleɪzə/ FOR-tə-LAY-zə ; Brazilian Portuguese: [foʁtaˈlezɐ] ; Portuguese for 'Fortress') is the state capital of Ceará, located in Northeastern Brazil. It is Brazil's 4th largest city—Fortaleza surpassed Salvador in 2024 census with a population of slightly over 2.5 million—and 12th among cities with the highest gross domestic product. It forms the core of the Fortaleza metropolitan area, which is home to almost 4 million people.

Fortaleza is an important industrial and commercial center of Northeast Brazil. According to the Ministry of Tourism, it is the fourth most visited city and tourist destination in the country. The BR-116, the most important highway in the country, starts in Fortaleza. The municipality is part of the Mercosur common market, and vital trade port which is closest to mainland Europe, being 5,608 kilometres (3,485 mi) from Lisbon, Portugal.

Paraguayan Guarani, or simply Guarani (avañe'ẽ), is a language of South America that belongs to the Tupi–Guarani branch of the Tupian language family. It is one of the two official languages of Paraguay (along with Spanish), where it is spoken by the majority of the population, and where half of the rural population are monolingual speakers of the language.

Variants of the language are spoken by communities in neighboring countries including parts of northeastern Argentina, southeastern Bolivia and southwestern Brazil. It is a second official language of the Argentine province of Corrientes since 2004 and the Brazilian city of Tacuru since 2010. Guarani is also one of the three official languages of Mercosur, alongside Spanish and Portuguese.

Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold economically liberal positions, while economic nationalist political parties generally support protectionism, the opposite of free trade.

Most nations are today members of the World Trade Organization multilateral trade agreements. States can unilaterally reduce regulations and duties on imports and exports, as well as form bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements. Free trade areas between groups of countries, such as the European Economic Area and the Mercosur open markets, establish a free trade zone among members while creating a protectionist barrier between that free trade area and the rest of the world. Most governments still impose some protectionist policies that are intended to support local employment, such as applying tariffs to imports or subsidies to exports. Governments may also restrict free trade to limit exports of natural resources. Other barriers that may hinder trade include import quotas, taxes and non-tariff barriers, such as regulatory legislation.

Montevideo (/ˌmɒntɪvɪˈdeɪoʊ/, US also /-ˈvɪdioʊ/; Spanish: [monteβiˈðeo] ) is the capital and largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of 201 square kilometers (78 sq mi). Montevideo is situated on the southern coast of the country, on the northeastern bank of the Río de la Plata.

A Portuguese garrison was established in the place where today is the city of Montevideo in November 1723. The Portuguese garrison was expelled in February 1724 by a Spanish soldier, Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst the Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region. There is no official document establishing the foundation of the city, but the "Diario" of Bruno Mauricio de Zabala officially mentions the date of 24 December 1726 as the foundation, corroborated by presential witnesses. The complete independence from Buenos Aires as a real city was not reached until 1 January 1730. It was also under brief British rule in 1807, but eventually the city was retaken by Spanish criollos who defeated the British invasions of the River Plate. Montevideo is the seat of the administrative headquarters of Mercosur and ALADI, Latin America's leading trade blocs, a position that entailed comparisons to the role of Brussels in Europe.

Regional Integration is a process in which neighboring countries enter into an agreement in order to upgrade cooperation through common institutions and rules. The objectives of the agreement could range from economic to political to environmental, although it has typically taken the form of a political economy initiative where commercial interests are the focus for achieving broader socio-political and security objectives, as defined by national governments. Regional integration has been organized either via supranational institutional structures or through intergovernmental decision-making, or a combination of both.

Past efforts at regional integration have often focused on removing barriers to free trade in the region, increasing the free movement of people, labour, goods, and capital across national borders, reducing the possibility of regional armed conflict (for example, through Confidence and Security-Building Measures), and adopting cohesive regional stances on policy issues, such as the environment, climate change and migration.

The Treaty of Asunción was a treaty between the countries of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay signed on March 26, 1991. The objective of the treaty, signed in Asunción, was to establish a common market among the participating countries, popularly called Mercosur (Southern Common Market). Later, the Treaty of Ouro Preto was signed to supplement the first treaty, establishing that the Treaty of Asunción was to be a legally and internationally recognized organization.

The treaty defined a program of gradual elimination of import/export fees that would reach a free commerce zone by the end of 1994. Even though the dates of the program were not followed and the free zone was not yet reached, the treaty established the basis for the "Mercado Común del Sur" (Mercosur).

The 1994 Protocol of Ouro Preto was the continuation of economic policies setting up a customs union, as set forth four years earlier in the Treaty of Asunción by the four original Mercosur states, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. It officially established Mercosur as an international customs union.