Lima, Oct. 27, 2006. The acting Secretary General of the Andean Community, Alfredo Fuentes Hernández, today expressed his satisfaction over the decision of the United States President, George W. Bush, to ask the U.S. Congress to extend the duration of the tariff preferences granted to the Andean countries in the framework of the ATPDEA, which is due to expire this coming December 31.

In a letter addressed to the United States Ambassador to Peru, James Curtis Strubble, the acting Secretary General of the CAN asks him to kindly transmit to the government of his country the great pleasure and appreciation of the Andean Community for that decision, announced by Nicholas Burns, the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, last October 24 in Bogotá.

"That decision helps strengthen the ties of cooperation and friendship between the United States and the Andean Community Member Countries,” he points out, after expressing his hope that the United States Congress will support this initiative in benefit of Andean workers and businessmen involved in exports that enjoy preferential access to that market. 

In a statement to the press, the acting Secretary General of the CAN emphasized that the preferential access the United States has been giving to Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru to support their drug control efforts, has stepped up the exports of those countries to the United States market. 

By way of example, the reported that exports of the CAN countries to the United States were 113 percent larger in 2005 than in 2001.  “In effect, while Andean sales to the United States market amounted to US$ 8 872 million dollars in 2001, by 2005 they had more than doubled to a figure of US$ 18 900 million dollars." 

Products from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru have enjoyed preferential access to the United States market since December 4, 1991, when the Congress of the United States signed the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA) into law.  In August 2002, those benefits were renewed and expanded to December 31, 2006 with the passing of the Andean Trade Preference and Drug Eradication Act (ATPDEA).