The political
decision to integrate our nations
and create the South American
Community of Nations has already
been made. The demarcation of a
South American Integration
Territory (ESI) will be based on a
gradual rapprochement between the
Andean Community and Mercosur,
indicated Andean Community
Secretary General, Allan Wagner,
during a special meeting organized
by the Latin American Integration
Association, ALADI, headquartered
in Montevideo, Uruguay.
In his speech,
Ambassador Wagner defined the
association model that would make
it possible to consolidate this
political decision. He proposed
the execution of a Framework
Agreement that would go beyond
trade integration, in a wider
perspective than a Free Trade
Agreement, expanding trade
integration, infrastructure
development, financial cooperation,
political cooperation, and
economic and social development.
The Andean
authority also expressed his
confidence that by next December,
when a South American Summit will
be held in Peru on the 8th and
9th, as well as an Andean
Development Summit on the 7th, the
respective Economic
Complementation Agreement between
the CAN and Mercosur will have
been implemented, upon completion
of the technical negotiations
stage.
In a different
part of his speech, the CAN
Secretary General stated that
“right now, ALADI has a very
important commitment to face, to
finally become the framework under
which the different Latin American
regions would converge”.
“Unlike the
events of the sixties, through the
Montevideo Agreement, which was
deemed to be a Latin American
integration macro process, what we
are going through right now is
that the sub-regions are starting
to get organized together, but no
longer based on a macro design,
but rather spontaneously,
pragmatically and with a new
perception of their interests; in
other words, from bottom to top”,
said Wagner.
In his speech,
the CAN Secretary General
mentioned certain financial data
to highlight the huge potential of
the South American Integration
Territory, such as total exports
to the world, which in 2003 topped
US$ 180 billion, domestic trade
amounting to about US$ 31 billion,
and US$ 2,696 per capita income.
In the same
year, the Gross Domestic Product
for the combination of countries
forming part of the ESI, was US$
974 billion, which is higher than
Canada’s GDP of US$834 billion,
and the US$ 682 billion generated
by the “Asian Tigers” comprising
the ASEAN economic block.
In her speech,
Ambassador Claudia Turbay,
Colombia’s Permanent
Representative and Chairperson of
ALADI’s Standing Committee,
highlighted “the historical
responsibility to shape political
and economic integration in this
part of the hemisphere, to turn it
into true integration for
development”, she stated.
The Secretary
General of the CAN was welcomed by
his ALADI counterpart, Juan
Francisco Rojas Penso, who hailed
the presence of Ambassador Wagner,
at what he called “a highly
transcendent time”, since the 13th
Meeting of the Andean Council of
Foreign Affairs Ministers will be
held on October 18, “when the
political will of the countries to
take a quality leap in the Latin
American integration process will
be tested”, he noted.
The Secretary
General of the CAN went through
the second day of his official
visit to Uruguay. Yesterday he met
with the President of the Republic,
Jorge Batlle, and the Foreign
Affairs Minister, Didier Opertti.
Today he will be holding meetings
with MERCOSUR authorities.
