Letter of the ATPA Beneficiary Countries to the President of the United States of America

Mr. President

More than ten years ago the Presidents of the Andean countries and of the United States of America met in Cartagena to open a new era in the struggle against unlawful drugs. On that memorable occasion the Heads of State adopted a common strategy to combat the problem, and they made an undertaking, for the first time, to attack it with an integrated approach which would include – as a priority element – the political support of the United States for the efforts of the Andean countries, and its cooperation with them.

We believe that it is essential to return to the foundations of that commitment and reassert the principles of that cooperation, which should take the reduction in demand, consumption and offer into consideration, and promote specific agreements in the area of alternative development, trade and investment. We must also not lose sight of the fact that these are related elements, which potentiate each other.

One specific result of this joint action has been the application of the Andean Trade Preferences. We recognize the benefits derived from this initiative, both for our country and for the United States, and we note that during the time that the Preferences have been in force, bilateral trade has doubled in both directions.

Today, in view of the fact that the plague of drugs is still with us – despite the unremitting efforts of the Andean countries in their struggle against drugs – we are convinced that it is imperative to broaden and deepen the cooperation on which we embarked more than ten years ago.

In this we assign priority to a speedy renewal of the Andean Trade Preferences Act, to make it permanent until it converges with the tariff reductions to be negotiated for the FTAA. At the same time, we consider it necessary to increase the range of export products with high Andean added value and with a strong impact on the generation of alternative employment to take the place of unlawful activity related to drug-production.

We therefore request that the Act will now come to cover products in the textile and clothing industries at all stages of the production chain, and that consideration will be given to rules of origin which allow the use of regional inputs. We also need to include other products such as: leather-goods, dairy products, tinned tuna, sugar and sugar products. It is important that the Act should match the structure of production and export activity in all our countries. We would then be in a position to guarantee the sustainability of the results obtained in the struggle against the world problem of drugs and to strengthen the legal economy, thus attenuating the high social and economic costs which our peoples have paid.

Further, we repeat our interest that Venezuela should be included as a beneficiary of the system of Preferences, since this would help to strengthen the process of Andean integration.

We will only achieve the results expected of us in the struggle against drugs if we have innovative instruments and support in proportion to the efforts of our countries, reflecting the true commitment of our countries to the eradication of one of man´s greatest plagues which, ignoring all national frontiers, inflicts such grave damage on the world.

With our expressions of friendship and of our highest esteem,

Hugo Banzer Suarez
President of the Republic of Bolivia

Gustavo Noboa Bejarano
President of the Republic of Ecuador

Andres Pastrana Arango
President of the Republic of Colombia

Javier Perez de Cuellar
Personal Representative of the President of the Republic of Peru