Associations of Exporters of the Andean
Community Countries
Lima Declaration
“For Integration and the Just and Sustained
Development of the Andean Peoples”
We, the Chairmen of the following
associations of exporters: the Colombian
National Foreign Trade Association (ANALDEX),
the Venezuelan Association of Exporters (AVEX),
the Ecuadorian Federation of Exporters (FEDEXPOR),
the National Chamber of Bolivian Exporters (CANEB)
and the Association of Peruvian Exporters (ADEX),
assembled in the city of Lima, Peru on May
9, 2006 to evaluate the future of Andean
integration within the global economy, agree
to make the following Joint Declaration:
Whereas:
1. We live in the age of integration, which
has served developing countries as a road to
sustained and inclusive growth, in sharp
contrast to countries that maintain closed
economies and show rising levels of
poverty. Despite this, since the end of the
past century, centralized economies have
served as an example that participation in
the world economy is essential.
2. Over its 37-year life, the Andean
Community has taken countless important
steps, both toward consolidating its
internal unity and toward strengthening its
ties with important international trading
blocs and areas, like MERCOSUR, the United
States and the European Union, laying the
groundwork for our countries’ unprecedented
development.
3. This is the time to work together,
irrespective of our political ideologies, to
reduce poverty by creating employment
through the modernizing of our production
systems, reforming of our institutions,
enhancing of our infrastructural and
technological competitiveness, and the
development of large Andean production
chains --all of this for the purpose of
moving toward a new growth model whose
benefits will be distributed more justly.
4. The current stage of development of the
Andean Community of Nations, measured in
terms of its strong institutional structure
and the growth of intra-regional trade with
direct and indirect effects on employment,
investment and the people’s welfare, have
made it a successful model for economic
integration.
5. The decision taken by the Government of
Venezuela to withdraw from the CAN because
of the conclusion of FTA negotiations by
Colombia and Peru, obviating the
authorization contained in Decision 598,
places the integration and socioeconomic
development of the Andean nations at obvious
risk.
Confronted by this critical situation, we
must address the entire Andean community to
make it a participant in the following
manifesto:
I. We call upon the Presidents of the Andean
countries to take effective measures to
safeguard the unity of the Andean Community
so that we can move ahead united and rapidly
with our efforts to advance our ties with
other economic blocs.
II. We call upon the government officials
and political leaders of Colombia, Ecuador
and Peru to complete their negotiations by
ratifying and promulgating their trade
agreements with the United States without
delay; and upon the political authorities
and leaders of Bolivia and Venezuela,
together with their production sectors and
societies in general, to create the
necessary domestic climate for a decision to
join in the Andean FTA.
III. We call upon Andean companies to
continue assuming their social
responsibility to fight poverty in our
countries, not only by complying strictly
with national labor and tax laws, but also
by committing to create decent, well-paid
jobs and contributing to the development of
a modern business culture by passing on
their experiences, forging alliances, and
encouraging and building production chains
that incorporate micro, small and medium
producers and the most impoverished sectors
of society.
IV. We call upon Andean workers to remain
united in their quest for shared results and
for the competitive growth of companies and,
hence, of the Region and its inhabitants.
V. Given the possible proliferation of
products from third countries entering
Venezuela and Bolivia through other members
of the CAN, it is necessary to draw on
and/or perfect the CAN’s legal defense
instruments.
VI. The associations of exporters signing
below commit to revive the Andean Council of
Exporters by furthering an agenda of joint
actions.
VII. We call upon the population in general
to close ranks around an export-driven
growth model that will enable us to maintain
the economic stability and growth we have
already obtained, to which we will add
social justice by reinforcing our public and
private institutions so that they are
capable of directing our future and forging
our progress.
Lima, May 9, 2006
José Luis Munera
ANALDEX
Francisco Mendoza
AVEX
Gonzalo Molina
CANEB
Mauricio Peña
FEDEXPOR
Luis Vega Monteferri
ADEX
