MTI Internship: Unlocking South America: Charting Singapore’s MERCOSUR

Americas and Central Asia Division (ACA) - Unlocking South America: Charting Singapore’s MERCOSUR Engagement Strategy

You will develop an economic engagement playbook to guide Singapore’s strategy toward engaging MERCOSUR – one of Latin America’s key regional blocs comprising Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. This includes identifying economic opportunities within MERCOSUR and recommending concrete initiatives to deepen our economic engagement. Your work will complement ongoing outreach efforts for the MERCOSUR-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (MCSFTA) – Singapore’s first FTA with all four MERCOSUR markets, and MERCOSUR’s first FTA with a country in Southeast Asia. Project Overview MERCOSUR collectively represents the world’s 6th largest economy with a total population of over 270 million people. In 2024, goods trade between Singapore and MERCOSUR accounted for 36% (S$12.6 billion) of Singapore’s total trade with the 33 independent economies in the Latin American and Caribbean region, while trade in services in 2023 accounted for 35% (S$7.26 billion). Upon its entry into force, the MCSFTA will deepen economic integration between Singapore and the four MERCOSUR economies by facilitating greater trade flows through lowered tariff rates, establishing transparent and predictable investment conditions, and fostering cooperation in areas such as trade facilitation, entrepreneurship, digitalisation, sustainable development, security of food supply and SME development. With the MCSFTA, there is potential for Singapore and MERCOSUR to collaborate in areas of mutual interest, such as in the green and digital economies. Given the diversity of MERCOSUR’s markets, there is a need to better understand sectoral opportunities, how they align with Singapore’s economic interests, and how MERCOSUR partners may be looking to engage stakeholders in Singapore and the Southeast Asian region. This project will therefore map such economic opportunities, evaluate the practical commercial and policy value of engaging MERCOSUR markets, and develop recommended engagement pathways to guide Singapore’s MERCOSUR engagement strategy. Key Questions You Will Help Answer As part of developing Singapore’s MERCOSUR Engagement Strategy, you will help MTI answer several strategic questions, including: 1. Which sectors within MERCOSUR offer promising sizeable growing potential for Singapore stakeholders, and how can these be promulgated to generate interest among Singapore companies? 2. What practical obstacles – such as market access requirements, standards, institutional readiness or logistics connectivity – could influence the feasibility of deepening Singapore’s economic engagement with MERCOSUR? 3. How could MERCOSUR companies and institutions be encouraged to engage more actively with Singapore the broader Southeast Asian region, particularly once the MCSFTA enters into force? 4. How should we compare and prioritise the individual MERCOSUR economies for different types of engagement, considering market characteristics, complementarities, and policy environments? 5. What forms of G2G, G2B or sector-focused initiatives would make the most practical starting points for early-stage cooperation with MERCOSUR? What You Will Work On You will work like a trade analyst helping to shape real-world policy thinking. Your responsibilities will include: Research and mapping • Compile economic, sectoral, and policy profiles of the four MERCOSUR economies. • Identify emerging opportunities in areas such as digitalisation, sustainability, agri-tech, and innovation, map these areas to Singapore’s economic and commercial needs. • Analyse trade flows, investment linkages, and potential areas of complementarity. Comparative and sectoral analysis • Examine how MERCOSUR’s economic structures and regulatory environments may affect engagement prospects. • Assess challenges such as standards, connectivity, institutional capacity, and ease of doing business. Engagement architecture development • Review Singapore’s existing economic engagement workplans across various trade architecture and assess which models could be adapted for MERCOSUR engagement. • Propose possible platforms for cooperation under the MCSFTA. What You Will Learn Through this project, you will gain: • Practical experience working with trade, investment, and sectoral datasets to formulate policy recommendations. • A structured understanding of Singapore’s trade architecture and how economic engagement strategies are developed for emerging markets. • Exposure to MERCOSUR’s economic landscape, market characteristics, regional integration dynamics, and sectoral trends. • The ability to design and apply structured, reusable evaluation frameworks to support policymaking. • Strengthened skills in research, quantitative scoring, analytical writing, and policy-oriented presentation.

This project is suited for candidates who: • Study economics, international relations, public policy, business, or related fields. • Enjoy working with data and comparative frameworks. • Are curious about trade policy, FTAs, and emerging regions beyond the usual US/EU/Asia focus. • Can write clearly and succinctly for a policy audience. Prior experience in policy work or international relations is helpful but not essential. Interest and a willingness to learn is far more important.