The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Andean Community and the Mercosur countries, meeting in the city of San José, Costa Rica on April 11, 2002 on the occasion of the Sixteenth Summit Meeting of Heads of State and Government of the Rio Group, agreed:

• To emphasize the economic, social and political priority their Governments attribute to harmonizing the integration processes of the Andean Community and the Mercosur and Chile in South America.

• In this context, they reiterated the high priority they accord to the formation of a free trade area between the Andean Community and the Mercosur and expressed their concern over the slowness of negotiations to date.

• To instruct their negotiators at the meeting scheduled for May 8 to 10 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which should not be postponed under any circumstances, to examine the negotiating methods and procedures used, with a view to speeding up the process under way.

• To underscore the political need to boost the progress of trade negotiations in order to evaluate their results and, if possible, to conclude them at the forthcoming Summit of South American Presidents, to be held in Guayaquil, Ecuador on July 27 of this year or in the second half of this year, at the latest.

• To instruct the pertinent bodies to extend the existing Agreements for the purpose of safeguarding trade flows until the free trade area becomes operational by the deadlines stipulated in the foregoing paragraph.

• To hold a meeting during the Summit of South American Presidents to be held in Guayaquil, Ecuador, of the "Political Dialogue and Coordination Mechanism between the Andean Community and the Mercosur and Chile," established in July 2001 in La Paz, Bolivia.

• To express their concern over political developments on the international scene and to reaffirm their steadfast intention to support the war against terrorism and organized crime. They consider the promotion of economic development with justice and social equity to be the best course for accomplishing this aim.

• With this in mind, they attribute maximum priority to the unrestricted opening of the developed countries’ markets to the exports of the region’s countries, a position they will defend jointly as part of a common strategy within the framework of the negotiation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas, as well as with the European Union.

• In this connection, they expressed the need for the Madrid Summit of Heads of State and Government of the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean to give the subject of trade special consideration in their deliberations, which should be aimed at achieving a real strategic economic, political and social association with the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.

• To instruct the Ambassadors of the Andean Community and the Mercosur countries to Spain and to Belgium to communicate this joint position to the Chair of the European Union and the Community authorities. The Ambassadors of the European Union countries to the Andean Community and Mercosur countries shall likewise be informed of this position.

The Foreign Ministers of the Andean Community and the Mercosur reiterate their intention to reinforce efforts aimed as consolidating the formation of an enlarged economic and political space in South America.

San José, Costa Rica, April 11, 2002