European Commission Directorate-General for Trade

Paraguay

Paraguay is as a member of Mercosur and thus part of an important region-to-region trading relationship for the EU although the actual Trade and investments between the two remain relatively modest. The EU is Paraguay's fourth most important trading partner with a value of trade in 2009 €585 million after Mercosur partners: Brazil and Argentina and United States. Access to other Mercosur markets plays an important role in the attractiveness of Paraguay as a destination of FDI.

The EU also considers the fight of illegal trade in pirated goods in the tri-border area between Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil and the respect of intellectual property rights a priority and is cooperating with Paraguay in this respect.

Although EU-Paraguay trade remains limited in absolute numbers, Paraguay, as a member of Mercosur, is part of an important trading partner for the EU in Latin America

Trade in goods

• EU good exports to Paraguay 2009: €258 million
• EU goods imports from Paraguay 2009: €327 million

The main European imports from Paraguay are agricultural products and crude materials (92%). The EU mainly exports manufactured products to Paraguay (85% of total exports) and in particular machinery, transport equipment and chemicals.

More statistics on Paraguay

EU-Mercosur negotiations

The backbone of the EU's future bilateral trade relations with Paraguay will be a wide-ranging EU-Mercosur Association Agreement which will result in the creation of a free trade area and which iscurrently under negotiation. This agreement should provide a boost to regional trade integration among the countries of Mercosur and stimulate new opportunities for trade with the EU by removing tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade. The Mercosur-EU FTA will cover, among other issues, trade in goods and services, investment, intellectual property rights (IPR) aspects including protection of geographical indications, government procurement, technical barriers to trade and sanitary and phytosanitary issues.

Until summer 2004 there was gradual but substantial progress in the negotiationwhich, however,  stalled in September 2004. Since then, regular contacts have taken place both at ministerial and technical level in order to explore ways on how to re-engage the process. In the Madrid Summit, which brought together Heads of State and Governments from Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe, as well as important non-state actors, resulted in a decision to re-launch negotiations for an EU-Mercosur Free Trade Agreement - a process which is now under way.