The India-Mercosur Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) is a limited trade agreement, a type of international concept, between the Republic of India and the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR) bloc. MERCOSUR is a regional economic bloc in South America whose full members currently include Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. The PTA's foundation was a Framework Agreement signed on June 17, 2003, in Asunción, Paraguay, with the aim of creating conditions for negotiating reciprocal tariff preferences and eventually a free trade area. The PTA itself was signed in New Delhi on January 25, 2004, and became operational on June 1, 2009, to expand and strengthen trade relations by granting mutual tariff concessions.
The agreement works by offering preferential tariff access on a limited "positive list" of products, unlike a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The mechanism is detailed across five Annexes. Annex I contains MERCOSUR's Offer List of tariff concessions on Indian products, covering 452 tariff lines. Annex II contains India's Offer List of tariff concessions on MERCOSUR's products, covering 450 tariff lines. Tariff preferences range from 10% to 100%. For instance, India offered a 10% concession on 394 products and a 100% concession on 13 products. Other key provisions include Annex III for Rules of Origin, Annex IV for Safeguard Measures, and Annex V for the Dispute Settlement Procedure (DSP).
The PTA connects India to the MERCOSUR bloc, which was established in 1991 by the Treaty of Asunción. The agreement is a strategic platform for India to diversify its trade partners and strengthen engagement with Latin America. Recently, there have been significant moves to expand the agreement. In October 2025, India and Brazil agreed to deepen the PTA, aiming to expand product coverage from the initial approximately 450 tariff lines to between 1,500 and 2,000 tariff lines. A Joint Administration Committee has been established to define the scope and modalities of this expansion.