India and MERCOSUR have signed the First Additional Protocol to the India-MERCOSUR Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA), marking an important step towards facilitating paperless trade and modernising customs procedures between India and the MERCOSUR countries.

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry said the move is expected to facilitate the transition towards digital and paperless trade documentation, reduce transaction costs and processing time associated with the issuance and verification of Certificates of Origin, and improve the efficiency of preferential trade under the existing India-MERCOSUR.

The Protocol was signed by Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agarwal, Ambassador of Uruguay to India Alberto Guani, and Ambassador of Paraguay to India, Fleming Raul Duarte Ramos, in the presence of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uruguay, Mario Lubetkin.

The signing also represents a significant step in the ongoing engagement between India and MERCOSUR to further strengthen and expand their trade and economic partnership.

The India-MERCOSUR PTA was signed on the 25th of January in 2004 and entered into force on the 1st of June in 2009. The Agreement provides preferential tariff concessions on 450 tariff lines by India and 452 tariff lines by the MERCOSUR side. MERCOSUR is a South American economic and political trade bloc founded in 1991.