Andean countries interested in improving their access to European markets

Lima, March 30th. The Secretary General of the Andean Community (CAN), Sebastian Alegrett, requested the co-operation of the European Union (EU) in providing the facilities for sub-regional products to gain access to European markets, beyond the scope of current tariff preferences.

Alegrett broached this subject during the inauguration of the Seminar on European Market Access for Andean Exports taking place at the CAN headquarters in Lima on March 30th and 31st, sponsored by this organization and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and financed by the EU.

Although the EU maintains a general system of preferences (GSP) for all industrial products from Andean countries and a list of agricultural products, within the framework of drug enforcement aid, Alegrett stated that trade facilities caused more problems than tariffs.

The European GSP expires on December 31st 2004, however CAN is hoping "it will become a permanent asset for the future partnership agreement between Andean countries and the EU, which will probably be signed within the next three years", according to Alegrett.

The CAN Secretary recognized that "Andean businessmen take little advantage of the GSP", hence the importance of the Seminar inaugurated today, in which European preferences will be studied further.

Seventeen percent of all Andean exports go to the European market, the second business partner after the United States, which recorded deficits of US$ 580 million and US$ 2 billion in the last two years.

Manuela Tortora, Coordinator of the Commercial Diplomacy Program of UNCTAD, pointed out that the seminar would broach "crucial aspects of European Market access".

Two items were included on the agenda: matters concerning tariff measures and the technical, sanitary, plant health and environmental standards applied to Andean exports, and matters concerning multilateral business negotiations regarding market access.

EU agricultural proposals will be examined during the discussions, particularly the stands taken in terms of genetically modified organisms which Tortora qualified as "a burning question" in the negotiations that began last week in the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Likewise, the impact of the recent free trade agreement between Mexico and the European Union on Andean countries will be analyzed, as well as the impact of this agreement on the European strategy at international negotiation forums.