Lima, May 4th,
2004. The Ministers of Foreign
Trade from Colombia, Ecuador and
Peru, made a formal request today
before the Trade Representative of
the United Sates, Robert Zoellick,
requesting that the Bolivian
delegation be included in the
initial cycle of trade
negotiations between the three
Andean countries with the United
States on May 18th of
this year.
The letter, signed by Ministers
Jorge Humberto Botero, Ivonne Juez
de Baki y Alfredo Ferrero,
indicates that “we would look
favorably upon the presence of
Bolivian Government delegation,
initially as observers, at the
meeting next May 18th.”
As is common knowledge, the three
Andean countries will begin the
negotiation process to establish a
Free Trade Agreement with the
United States in Bogota, Colombia,
next May 18th.
The bases for the Ministers´
request are included in a
paragraph in the letter written to
Robert Zoellick in which they
explicitly express that “we would
like to stress the importance that
the Andean Community as a group
places upon ensuring, to the
fullest extent possible, the
widest participation of the
countries involved in this
integration process, particularly
those of us that are beneficiaries
of APTDEA, and have coincided in
our efforts to further deepen our
trade relationships with the
United States.”
This initiative will- according to
the Foreign Trade Ministers of the
three Andean nations- benefit both
internal trade relations of the
Andean Community countries
committed to the negotiation
process as well as contribute to
fine-tuning the trade
relationships of all four Andean
countries with the United States.
The letter was signed by
representatives form Colombia,
Ecuador and Peru, and will be
channeled to the Trade
Representative of the United
States through the Secretary
General of CAN, Ambassador Allan
Wagner Tizon.
The Foreign Trade Ministers of CAN
participate in the ordinary
session of the Andean Community
Commission at the seat of the
General Secretariat in Lima, Peru.
