India and the MERCOSUR bloc are looking at expanding the list to about 1,500-3000 items with India’s interest in greater market access for items such as engineering goods, automobiles, pharmaceuticals and electronics, an industry source said.
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In a boost to Indian exporters aiming to diversify more prominently into Latin America, India and the four-member MERCOSUR trading bloc are set to finalise the Terms of Reference (ToR) for expanding their existing preferential trade agreement (PTA) within the next two months, senior officials said.India’s expanded PTA with the MERCOSUR — including South American economic heavyweights Argentina and Brazil, alongside Paraguay and Uruguay — is likely to be in place my mid-2027, under a strictly fast-tracked negotiating timeline, said Vimal Anand, Joint Secretary, Department of Commerce, at an event organised by EEPC India in Panaji, Goa on Monday.“We already have a PTA with MERCOSUR, but it has only 450 lines. We have recently embarked on an exercise to expand the PTA. Currently, we are negotiating on the terms of reference for deciding the modalities of the negotiations, which will be concluded in a couple of months,” Anand said.The expansion of the India-MERCOSUR trade pact is also important as New Delhi navigates a highly volatile global trade environment, and is facing an unpredictable tariff situation in the US, its largest export market.Under the India-MERCOSUR PTA, operationalised in 2009, the two sides offer tariff concessions to each other, ranging from 10 per cent to 100 per cent, on 450 and 452 tariff lines, respectively. India and the MERCOSUR bloc are looking at expanding the list to about 1,500-3000 items with India’s interest in greater market access for items such as engineering goods, automobiles, pharmaceuticals and electronics, an industry source said.“Although there is a big demand for engineering goods Brazil and Argentina, the import duties are very high, touching 40-50 per cent for certain items. If import duties are reduced once the PTA is expanded, exports will go up substantially,” an exporter present at the event remarked.Oil, gas and critical minerals available in abundance in Latin America is an additional draw for India, the source added.India’s exports to Latin America in FY 2025 was at $15.17 billion, which is less than 2 per cent of the region’s total imports, indicating a lot of potential for growth.Anand said that India’s FTAs with key partners, including the United Kingdom, European Union, United Arab Emirates, Australia and EFTA countries, are creating new opportunities for Indian exporters by reducing trade barriers and improving competitiveness.Published on June 8, 2026
