Mercosur participant of relations between Israel and Mercosur
FTA with third parties
With the 2005 cooperation agreement with Mercosur, the Andean Community gained four new associate members: Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. These four Mercosur members were granted associate membership by the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers meeting in an enlarged session with the commission (of the Andean Community) on 7 July 2005. This move reciprocates the actions of Mercosur, which granted associate membership to all the Andean Community nations by virtue of the Economic Complementarity Agreements (Free Trade Agreements) signed between the CAN and individual Mercosur members.Mercosur signed free trade agreements with Israel in December 2007, with Egypt in August 2010, the State of Palestine in December 2011 and Lebanon on 18 December 2014.In 2016, Brazilian presidents, Dilma Rousseff and later Michel Temer, along with Argentine President Macri began to place pressure to negotiate a free trade agreement between Mercosur and the European Union and other Latin American nations. In June 2019, the European Union–Mercosur Free Trade Agreement was confirmed. The bilateral trade deal opens 100 percent of EU trade and 90 percent of Mercosur trade. The deal still needs to be ratified, however.