Lima, February 29, 2008.-. The Andean Community Member Countries intensified their preparations this week for the Third Round of Negotiations for the establishment of an Association Agreement with the European Union, which will be held this coming April 21 to 25 in Quito, Ecuador, by holding simultaneous meetings of the different technical subgroups and of the Heads of the Trade Negotiation Group.

The Andean Heads of the CAN-EU Trade Negotiation Group met today starting at 9:00 a.m. at the Andean Community General Secretariat headquarters in Lima to study the advances made in preparing the offer of CAN goods to be traded, analyze the methods for negotiating agricultural and non-agricultural goods, and examine  the schedule of meetings in the Third Round of Negotiations, among other matters. 

In the case of the tariff negotiation, the Andean Community is preparing a joint list of goods for tariff reduction to be presented to the European Union this coming March 14. 

This is one more meeting to be added to those held in recent days by the Trade Pillar negotiation subgroups, such as those dealing with Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), Asymmetries, Access of agricultural and non-agricultural goods, Dispute settlement, and Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, among others.  In addition to these presential meetings, the Andean representatives on all of the negotiation subgroups are in permanent contact with each other via videoconferences. 

The Trade Pillar of the Third Round of Negotiations to establish an Association Agreement with the European Union has two main objectives: on the one hand, to continue negotiating the texts of the different chapters and, on the other, to hold an initial discussion of the lists of goods and services to be traded. 

In the cases of the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Pillars, Andean coordination meetings in preparation for the Third Round were held on February 6 and 15 and others are scheduled for this coming March 10.