Decision 442
Andean Business Advisory Council

THE COMMISSION OF THE ANDEAN COMMUNITY,

HAVING SEEN: Article 44 of the Cartagena Agreement and Commission Decision 187;

WHEREAS: It is necessary to reconcile the contents of Decision 187 determining the creation of the Andean Business Advisory Council, with the stipulations of the Trujillo Protocol;

DECIDES:

Article 1.- The Andean Business Advisory Council, as stipulated in Article 44 of the Cartagena Agreement, is the advisory institution of the Andean Integration System whose purpose is to render an opinion to the Andean Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, the Commission or the General Secretariat, at their request or on its own initiative, with regard to the programs or activities of the Andean Subregional Integration group that are of interest to them.

Article 2.- The Council shall be comprised of four top-level delegates from each of the Member Countries. They shall be chosen directly by the organizations representing the business sectors in each country.

Article 3.- The Council shall have the following responsibilities:
  1. To give an opinion to the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers, the Commission or the General Secretariat, as stipulated in article 1 of this Decision;

     

  2. To attend such meetings of government experts or working groups relating to their sectorial activity as they are summoned to by decision of the Member Countries; and

     

  3. To participate, with a right to be heard, in the meetings of the Andean Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs and the Commission.

Article 4.- The opinions and agreements of the Council shall be placed on record and shall not be binding on the institutions of the Andean Integration System or the Member Countries.

Without prejudice to the foregoing, the General Secretariat shall place on record in the legal bases of the proposals it submits to the Commission, the initiatives put forward.

Article 5.- The national integration agencies, for purposes of the stipulation in article 2 of this Decision, shall summon their different trade associations to agree upon the mechanism for appointing their four representatives to the Council so that, in executing that mechanism, they may proceed to elect those representatives.

The representatives appointed by the business associations must be officially accredited to the General Secretariat of the Andean Community by the national integration agencies.

Article 6.- The Council shall be represented in the organs in which its participation is foreseen, by its chairman or, in the absence of that person, by the vice-chairman or the Council member delegated for that purpose, as provided for in the Council bylaws. The chairmanship shall be occupied for a one-year period, in the order of preference established for the other bodies of the Andean Integration system.

Article 7.- Let Decision 438 be abrogated.

Signed in the city of Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, on the twenty-sixth of July of nineteen ninety-eight.