Uruguay is pursuing a strategy to strengthen its integration into regional and global markets through three mutually reinforcing pillars: maintaining an open and predictable investment framework, deepening regional and international trade integration, and strengthening enabling conditions through infrastructure, digital connectivity and skills development.
Uruguay’s investment agenda is centred on equal treatment for domestic and foreign investors, legal certainty and transparent incentives. The Investment Promotion Law grants tax benefits based on employment creation, exports, territorial decentralisation, research and innovation, clean technologies and productivity. Its implementation is co-ordinated by COMAP, while Uruguay XXI promotes investment, assists investors and provides aftercare. Free zones, free ports and airports, industrial and science and technology parks, and public-private partnerships complement this framework.
Investment promotion focuses on renewable energy and green hydrogen, information technology and global services, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, audiovisual production, logistics, forestry and the bioeconomy, higher-value-added food, sustainable tourism and the circular economy. The strategy also incorporates a territorial dimension by granting greater benefits to projects outside metropolitan Montevideo and using free zones, industrial parks and logistics platforms to support productive decentralisation and regional development.
Regional integration efforts centre on MERCOSUR, which remains an important pillar of Uruguay’s trade policy. Uruguay supports intraregional trade facilitation, lower non-tariff barriers and negotiations with external partners. The MERCOSUR Interim Trade Agreement with the European Union and the separate MERCOSUR–EFTA agreement broaden access to European markets. The MERCOSUR–Singapore Free Trade Agreement has applied between Uruguay and Singapore since March 2026, while negotiations continue with Canada, the United Arab Emirates, Korea, Indonesia and Viet Nam.
At the international level, Uruguay is pursuing accession to the CPTPP and has requested entry to RCEP to strengthen links with Asia-Pacific. Customs modernisation, the Single Window for Foreign Trade, co‑ordinated border management, risk management and digitalised procedures seek to reduce trade costs, particularly for SMEs. Uruguay XXI is also developing a digital platform providing information on tariff preferences, rules of origin, market-access requirements and opportunities under trade agreements.
Infrastructure, connectivity and human capital policies support this integration agenda. The Port of Montevideo and the port system provide regular connections to Europe, Asia and the Americas, while transport corridors and border crossings link production centres to ports and neighbouring markets. Electricity interconnection with Brazil supports regional energy exchanges, and extensive fibre-optic coverage and digital public services facilitate global services and digital trade. UTU and INEFOP provide technical and vocational education, AGESIC and Plan Ceibal support digital skills, and ANII promotes advanced skills, research and links between academia and industry. Uruguay also participates in MERCOSUR mechanisms for labour mobility, residence and recognition of qualifications.