Lima, Dec. 14, 2006.- The Andean Community took a significant step toward the negotiation of an Association Agreement with the European Union by establishing rules that had been pending for the liberalization of trade in services in the Andean subregion, the acting Secretary General of the CAN, Alfredo Fuentes, emphasized today.  

The titular representatives of the Ministers of Trade of the Andean countries, meeting in Lima as the CAN Commission, approved Decision 659, confirming the extensive liberalization of services in the Andean area and identified the service sectors for which standards will be harmonized, among them financial and professional services, as well as radio and television services, for which rules will be agreed upon in order to attract subregional investors. 

The Secretary General of the CAN underscored the establishment of special treatment for Bolivia, which will be able to present proposals to the Andean Community Commission for preferential treatment in several service sectors, in a process to last until 2009.

He pointed out that the approval of the Community Decision on services not only fulfilled one of the commitments assumed with the European Union as a result of the joint assessment of subregional integration carried out up until July of this year, but also confirmed the Andean Community’s vitality. 

This Community Decision is one of several approved recently, he added, like the one that updates and modernizes the common tariff classification and the Decision that establishes the Andean Integrated Tariff (ARIAN), the customs management instrument that facilitates the improved application of foreign trade measures by the Andean countries.