Lima, Jan 25. Víctor Rico, Director of the CAN General Secretariat announced that the Andean Community expects to conclude negotiations for the signing of a Tariff Preferences Agreement with Argentina by the end of this coming March.

After confirming that the Andean countries will hold their Second Meeting with that country and Mercosur starting tomorrow and until Friday, he stated that a preliminary agreement had already been reached on 43.70 percent of the total universe of products under negotiation.

"Of the 2,947 subheadings that are being negotiated, at present 1,288 have been tentatively agreed upon, leaving 1,659 subheadings pending –that is, 56.10% of the total," he explained.

He went on to point out that substantial advances with regard to the rest of the products are expected from this second meeting. This means that the negotiations may be concluded by March 31, at the latest, such being the date when the bilateral agreements expire.

"We trust that two months will be sufficient, not only because we have already made some progress, but also because the negotiations with Brazil will serve as a reference that will allow us to move ahead much more rapidly," he commented.

The CAN-Brazil negotiations, started in April 1999 concluded on July 3rd of that same year with the signing of a Tariff Preferences Agreement that entered into force on August 16 for a two-year period.

This agreement, the first that the CAN has negotiated as a bloc with a Mercosur country, constituted a major step toward broadening the preferential access granted between the parties: 94% of the value of the products that Brazil purchases from the CAN and 47% of those it sells to the group are covered by this preferential agreement.

Rico stated that once the negotiations with Argentina have concluded, it would be desirable to return to the initiative of creating a free trade area between the CAN and Mercosur.

"We consider that today the economic and political climate for undertaking this negotiation between the two integration blocs is better than that of two years ago," he added.