Press Release on the Meeting of Andean Community and Mercosur Foreign Ministers and Trade Policy-Makers
New York, September 15, 2002

The Andean Community and Mercosur Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Trade Policy-Makers, meeting in New York City on September 15, 2002, explored the status of relations between the two regions.

They agreed to set the date for the Second Meeting of the Political Dialogue Agreement in the first half of December in order to give priority to issues of political cooperation, security, the worldwide war on drugs and related offenses, and smuggling and illegal arms trafficking, as well as cooperation on education and health and the defining of joint foreign positions to be taken in multilateral and regional forums.

They attributed great importance to the advances being made and the loosening of stands on the different issues under negotiation.

It was agreed that the CAN would present its proposals on tariff time periods, phase-out rates and sensitive products and the Mercosur on origin and agriculture, by September 26 at the latest. Negotiations would then be resumed on October 7, with a view to concluding them before the close of 2002.

The participants expressed their conviction that the consolidation of the Free Trade Area between the CAN and Mercosur and the agreements that are defined in that Area will help improve the expectations and consolidate the results of negotiations by the two regions in the World Trade Organization’s Doha Round and the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas - FTAA.