ANDINA Agency
Lima, May 17, 2008

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa this morning hailed the framework agreement “with flexibility” that will allow Andean countries to adhere to an association agreement with the European Union and considered it a good “starting point.”   

He pointed out that the agreement reached in the meeting of the Andean bloc with the European troika constitutes an “important advance,” for from now on the CAN and the EU will use the strategy of a “general framework agreement with flexibility” for their negotiation. 

In this way, President Correa stated, the Andean countries “will be able to adhere to certain parts of the agreement, leaving others aside,” which is evidence of the existence of a “legal framework with flexibility.”  

He explained that the pillars of the agreement are political dialogue, cooperation and trade, and that it will be up the countries themselves to decide which ones they wish to adhere to. 

“What we are discussing is the need to have this same flexibility within the trade area,” the Ecuadorian President stated. 

“The problem --he said-- lay in just how far we can go with the unbundling.  No agreement was reached and, for that reason, its determination will be a task for our experts and negotiators.”  

The flexible agreement emerged the day after the approval of the Lima Declaration at the Fifth Summit of Latin America and the Caribbean and the European Union (LAC-EU), where the government leaders of both continents agreed to prioritize the negotiation agreements and to conclude the process in 2009.

President Correa mentioned that, at the meeting, the EU insisted that the flexibility consisted of considering the asymmetries existing within the CAN, a key aspect of the negotiation. 

 The Andean countries do “their utmost” to negotiate as a bloc, he pointed out, but the problem is that not all of the countries are in the same situation. 

“We have not yet reached that level of coordination (of the EU).  The CAN has a very weak general framework (…) and the problem within the CAN is that two countries have negotiated an FTA with the U.S., and their starting point, their negotiating position, is lower, perhaps, than that of Ecuador and Bolivia, because they have liberalized many things and have reached agreements that concern parts of (the chapter on) intellectual property.”

In this connection, he asked for an understanding of this situation, claiming that there is nothing wrong with it, for it can arise in negotiations between different groups of countries anywhere in the world.  

“The important point is to reach minimum consensuses as rapidly as possible, because our countries have no time to lose and should be efficient.” 

Correa insisted that there’s nothing wrong with the fact that there are different visions in the CAN about economic strategies or development levels, when the important thing is to reach minimum consensuses.