Venezuela Suspended from Mercosur Trade Bloc

Venezuela Suspended from Mercosur Trade Bloc The South American nations has suspended Venezuela on December 2, 2016 from the Mercosur trade bloc for violating the bloc’s democratic principles and failing to meet its basic standards. The Foreign Ministers of the four founding members of Mercosur-Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay- reached the decision to revoke the Mercosur

membership of Venezuela, which is in the mid of an economic collapse despite holding the world’s largest oil reserves.

About Mercosur Trade bloc

Mercosur is a sub-regional bloc of South American countries established in 1991 to promote free trade and the flexible movement of goods, people, and currency and its headquarters are located at Montevideo (Uruguay).Its full members are Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Venezuela’s suspension. Venezuela had been a full member since 2012 in Mercosur.Venezuela failed to comply with its commitments made at the time of joining the group in 2012. It also failed to meet December 1, 2016 deadline to adopt certain standards and rules required for membership of the bloc.

It is also suffering from broken economic system with world’s highest inflation and crumbling currency, corruption problem and is close to civil unrest.Tensions between Venezuela and its Mercosur partners had worsened since 2015. Earlier in 2016, the bloc had stopped Venezuela from assuming the rotating presidency.