Lima, April 5, 2005.- The Andean Community and the European Union today reiterated their will to move toward the negotiation of an Association Agreement that will include a free trade area, based on the analysis and evaluation of the regional integration process launched at the First Meeting of the Ad Hoc Working Group yesterday and today in Lima.

The meeting of the Working Group, made up of high-level representatives of the Andean Community and the European Union, was chaired by Peru’s Vice-Minister of Foreign Trade, Pablo de la Flor, in the case of the CAN, and Karl Friedrich Falkenberg, European Commission Director of Trade Negotiations, in the case of the EU. CAN Secretary General, Allan Wagner Tizón, also took part in the meeting.

A detailed examination was made during the meeting of the CAN’s institutional and legal framework, Community agricultural sector aspects, non-tariff barriers to trade in goods and services and the customs union, among other things.

The analysis of each of these issues was preceded by a presentation by the CAN General Secretariat and followed by an exchange of ideas, questions, observations and explanations by the representatives of the two parties.

During the presentation about the legal system, the General Secretariat explained the supranational nature of Community legislation (Decisions and Resolutions) and their direct applicability in the countries merely upon publication in the Cartagena Agreement’s Official Gazette. It also explained the roles played by the Andean Court of Justice and the CAN General Secretariat in overseeing and managing the fulfillment of commitments.

In presenting Community agricultural aspects, the General Secretariat described the coverage of the Andean agricultural health and price band systems, the Andean rural development and competitiveness program, and institutional aspects relating to the agricultural sector.

It was agreed to delve more deeply into some specific aspects through an exchange of information and by holding specific meetings, as in the particular case of intellectual property.

The Mixed CAN – EU Commission officially launched the “joint evaluation” process agreed upon at the European Union – Latin American Summit in May 2004 in Guadalajara, this past January 21 in Brussels. At that time, the two parties agreed on a roadmap for the joint evaluation and decided to form an Ad Hoc Working Group to handle the technical and substantive aspects of that process.