India is working to expand the preferential trade agreement with South-American nation bloc Mercosur to further promote trade and investment between the two regions, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Saturday. Mercosur is a trade bloc in Latin America comprising Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay. The India-Mercosur PTA came into effect on June 1, 2009. This PTA has limited coverage and contains only 450 tariff lines or products. Both sides are looking at expanding the scope of this pact to a full-fledged agreement. "The Mercosur region is particularly important for us, and we are working to expand our India-Mercosur preferential trade agreement, to improve market access, to grow investments on both sides, to have technology partnerships, and to engage in sports, education, culture," he said here at Ficci's India-Brazil Business Forum. The minister also said that the bilateral trade between India and Brazil is growing, but it is "sub-optimal". It grew by 25