CAN Secretary General urges adoption of
Common External Tariff in less than one month’s time

Lima, September 19, 2002. Andean Community (CAN) Secretary General, Guillermo Fernández de Soto, maintained today that the first and most urgent challenge facing the Andean countries is to adopt a Common External Tariff by October 15^th at the latest.

“This is essential for Andean integration and for our economic negotiations with third countries, particularly in the FTAA,” he stated in his address on assuming the position of CAN Secretary General.

Fernández de Soto outlined the priorities for his term of office before Foreign Minister Alan Wagner, Prime Minister Luis Solari, Vice-President and Minister of Trade and Integration, Raúl Diez Canseco, and other high-level Peruvian authorities, together with representatives of the bodies and institutions of the Andean Integration System, other international organizations and the Diplomatic Corps attending the ceremony.

After stressing that “our immediate and most urgent task is to put that tariff into place before it becomes meaningless in the face of the unstoppable advance of multilateral hemispheric negotiations and bilateral arrangements with the United States and the European Union,” he broached the urgency of having the Andean governments reach the necessary political decisions for its approval and make the integration process perfectly transparent and aboveboard.

In referring to the CAN’s external projection, he stated that its priorities in the South American sphere are to strengthen links with the Mercosur and boost the development of regional infrastructure, and at the hemispheric level to necessarily consolidate the system of speaking with a single voice in its negotiations with the FTAA.

He underscored the importance of “continuing to build up the Andean Community’s relations with the United States” and “successfully achieving a strategic association with the European Union,” as well as moving toward closer relations with Canada, China and Russia.

Fernández de Soto announced that at least three lines of action that are essential to the Member countries will be incorporated into all of the Andean organization’s activities, namely creating more jobs, building up our competitiveness and gaining a position in the globalized world economy on better terms.

He went on to add that “this will reduce the vulnerability of our integration project to external elements and enhance both its credibility before the Andean nations and its international image.”

The CAN Secretary General revealed that in order to make this process more understandable to Andean civil society, he intends to turn the General Secretariat into “a flexible, dynamic institution, with a capacity to respond effectively to new challenges” and to lead the way in championing the all-embracing concept of Andean integration.

The Peruvian Foreign Minister, for his part, after praising Fernández de Soto´s outstanding professional background, stated his willingness to collaborate with the rest of the members of the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers in deepening the integration process. “For Peru, integration is not a business. It is a foreign policy option for obtaining a position as a player on the international scene,” he stressed.

The Vice-President and Minister of Trade and Tourism drew attention to the auspicious circumstances in which the new Secretary General was assuming his position, at a time when the Andean countries, bound together by a common aim, have just secured preferential access to the United States market, thanks to their shared efforts.