Lima, Nov. 3, 2006.- The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Andean Community Member Countries and Mexico today, in Montevideo, signed an agreement to establish a Mechanism for Political Dialogue and Cooperation on Matters of Mutual Interest that will enable them to strengthen their historical ties and reinforce cooperation in the political, economic, social and cultural areas. 

The agreement was signed by the Foreign Ministers of Bolivia, David Choquehuanca; Colombia, María Consuelo Araujo Castro; Ecuador, Francisco Carrión Mena, and Peru, José Antonio García Belaunde, on behalf of the Andean Community, and by Foreign Minister  Luis Ernesto Derbez Bautista for Mexico. 

In a communiqué distributed at the close of a meeting held during the Sixteenth Iberoamerican Summit in Montevideo, the Andean Foreign Ministers underscored the importance of the Mexico-CAN Agreement and together pointed out that this agreement “constitutes a contribution toward strengthening the Iberoamerican Community so that it can jointly meet the challenge of building an alliance at the service of peace, democracy, security, human rights and socially equitable sustainable development.” 

The acting Secretary General of the Andean Community, Alfredo Fuentes Hernández, for his part, stated that the signing of this agreement reveals the political will of both the CAN Member Countries and Mexico to move toward further integration. 

He indicated that, in effect, this agreement constitutes the first step toward Mexico’s incorporation into the CAN as an Associate Member Country, an act recently accomplished by Chile.  “This is a goal we have set ourselves and on which both parties agree,” he explained. 

Fuentes reported that trade between the Andean Community and Mexico followed an upward trend over the period 1997-2005 and in 2005 reached a figure of 3 503 million dollars, up 39.4 percent on the previous year’s 2 513 million dollars.

He went on to explain that although the Andean countries’ balance of trade with Mexico had been unfavorable over that period, Andean exports to Mexico had climbed steadily, reaching their top value of 1 000 million dollars in 2005.