Report of the I Meeting of the Andean
Community – Northern Triangle (El Salvador,
Guatemala and Honduras)
The
Delegations of the Andean Community Member
Countries and of El Salvador, Guatemala and
Honduras, Member Countries of the Central
American Common Market, met in Lima, Peru on
March 2 and 3, 2000, to launch negotiations
for the Partial Scope Economic
Complementarity Agreement on tariff
preferences.
The Andean
Community Delegation was led by the National
Director for Integration and International
Trade Negotiations of the Ministry of
Industry, Tourism, Integration and
International Trade Negotiations of Peru, Mr.
Eduardo Brandes Salazar.
The Northern
Triangle countries, for their part, were
headed by the following persons: for El
Salvador, by Mr. Ricardo Alcides Martell,
Chief, Market Access, Ministry of Economy;
for Guatemala, by Mr. Rubén Estuardo Morales
Monroy, Director of Trade Negotiations of
the Ministry of Economy; and for Honduras,
by Ms. Suyapa Lisette Andino Sánchez, Head
of the Trade Negotiations Department of the
Secretariat of Industry and Trade.
The list of
participants is attached as Annex 1.
During the
course of the Meeting, the Delegations
reiterated the determination of their
governments to negotiate and sign a Trade
and Investment Agreement as soon as possible.
It is their intention for this Agreement to
have simple rules that will make it possible
to increase trade and investment flows and
at the same time to serve as a foundation
for intensifying those commitments in the
future with a view to attaining a Free Trade
Agreement, as agreed by the Vice-Ministers
of the two trading blocs on April 25, 1999.
The
Delegations exchanged information about
their tariffs and other trade policy issues
relevant to the negotiation. They also
specified the data they would like to
receive (Annexes II and III).
The Andean
Community Delegation presented the text of
the Draft Agreement that had first been
introduced in September 1999 and discussed
the general criteria that were considered in
putting together the list of products in
which it is interested.
That
Delegation also delivered a proposal
regarding Article 4 d) and f) of the Annex
on Provisions of Origin of the Draft
Agreement on Economic Complementarity (Annex
IV), as well as an additional list of
products in which it is interested (Annex
V).
El Salvador,
Guatemala and Honduras, for their part, put
forward and explained an alternative
proposal to Chapter II on Trade
Liberalization of the draft Agreement
presented by the Andean Community (Annex VI).
There was a
wide-ranging discussion of the criteria that
should be used in negotiating the products
and of the methodology to be adopted to
facilitate the negotiation, so that the
Agreement may be concluded as rapidly as
possible.
Answers
regarding the lists of products of interest
must be forthcoming by April 14th
of this year, together with an indication of
the margins of preference the countries are
in a position to grant. The Secretariats of
each bloc will be responsible for this
simultaneous exchange via electronic mail.
The
Delegations agreed, as well, in regard to
the proposed text of the Agreement, to
exchange opinions on the different topics to
be negotiated.
In preparing
the agenda for the next meeting, the
Delegations agreed to continue with their
exchange of information and to address all
of the topics involved in the proposed
Agreement. The Delegations of El Salvador,
Guatemala and Honduras stated with regard to
the negotiation of preferences for the
products of interest, that the start-up
would depend upon the progress made in
negotiating the text of Chapter II of the
Agreement. The Andean Community Delegation,
for its part, proposed as working
methodology for the next meeting that the
two blocs devote their efforts
simultaneously to two negotiations, one, the
text of the Agreement and two, the
preferences to be granted in regard to the
products of interest to the two blocs,
following the order of the trade
classifications.
In concluding,
it was agreed to hold the next negotiation
meeting in San Salvador, El Salvador on May
3, 4 and 5 of 2000.
Lima, March 3,
2000
(signed by)
Eduardo
Brandes Salazar
Chairman of the Andean Community Delegation
Ricardo
Alcides Martell
Minister of Economy of El Salvador
Rubén Estuardo
Morales Monroy
Minister of Economy of Guatemala
Suyapa Lisette
Andino Sánchez
Secretary of Industry and Trade of Honduras
