Brussels, July 26, 2005

The European Union and the Andean Community today, in Brussels, concluded the second meeting of the Working Group responsible for conducting the Joint Assessment of the economic integration in the Andean subregion.  The two parties reiterated their shared will to move toward the negotiation of an Association Agreement that will include a free trade area, on the basis of the analyses and results of the assessment process launched in Lima this past April. 

The two-day meeting of the Working Group of high-level representatives of the European Commission and the Andean Community was chaired, in the case of the EU, by Karl Falkenberg, Deputy Director General of Trade of the European Commission, and in the case of the CAN, by Roger E. Figueroa, Vice-Minister of Trade of Venezuela, in exercise of the Andean Presidency Pro Tempore, and Allan Wagner Tizón, CAN Secretary General.

In the course of the meeting, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson received the Andean Heads of Delegation and the Secretary General and there was an exchange of viewpoints about the progress of the joint assessment process.

A detailed examination was made during the meeting of aspects relating to the perfecting of the customs union and customs procedures; common policies on competition, investment, government procurement, intellectual property and appellations of origin; trade defense measures; sanitary and phytosanitary provisions; and non-tariff barriers to trade in goods. 

The analysis of each of these subjects was preceded by a presentation by the CAN General Secretariat and followed by an in-depth discussion among the representatives of the two parties. 

It was agreed in the cases of some of the topics, to deepen their study through an exchange of information and other specific actions such as, for example, the preparation by the CAN General Secretariat of a list of specific national provisions in regard to investments and public procurement. 

The two parties agreed to hold the next meeting in Venezuela in November.

The EU – CAN Joint Committee officially launched, in Brussels this past January 21, the Joint Assessment process agreed at the Summit of the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean in May 2004 in Guadalajara.  The two parties agreed at that time on a roadmap for the Joint Assessment process and decided to create an Ad Hoc Working Group to take up in detail the substantive aspects of that process in the various chosen areas.