Andean Trade Ministers launch negotiations on the Common External Tariff

Lima, June 7, 2002. The Andean Community Trade Ministers today launched negotiations on the Common External Tariff (CET) and declared themselves in “permanent session” to perfect the customs union.

They accordingly instructed the technical teams from the five countries to meet, starting on Tuesday, June 11, in order to define the substantive aspects of the CET and other similar instruments. The conclusions reached by these teams will be submitted to the Meeting of Ministers of Trade and the Treasury or Economy to be held on Monday, June 17.

The issue will be addressed on Tuesday, June 18 in an enlarged meeting of Trade Ministers and Andean Foreign Ministers.

Bolivian Trade Minister, Claudio Mansilla, Chairman of the CAN Commission, hailed the results of the meeting in pointing out that, with today’s results, “the Andean Community is showing itself to be increasingly strong and united.”

Mansilla stressed that the Ministers of Trade had “realized the need to speed up the calendar on the Common External Tariff,” inasmuch as the definitions on the subject that are reached at the forthcoming meetings in June will make it possible to “strengthen the common trade policy in the negotiations that are being furthered with third parties.”

The Commission analyzed the negotiations that are underway with the Mercosur and those being carried out within the framework of the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) and the World Trade Organization (WTO), while stressing the “importance of maintaining a joint position to reinforce common strategies in those spheres.”

The Ministers rendered a posthumous tribute to former Peruvian President, Fernando Belaúnde Terry, whom they described as being “the architect of the integration movement” and expressed their satisfaction at the respect for and maintenance of democracy in the cases of Venezuela and of the recent elections held in Colombia.