First Community Norms Approved in Compliance with Presidential Directives

Lima, March 8, 2002.

Foreign Trade ministers of the Andean Community countries made significant progress toward the implementation of the Santa Cruz presidential agreements, when they gave their approval to the first Community standards whose adoption had been determined by the Heads of State.

The approvals refer to the Decisions on the "Harmonizing of Legislation on Cosmetic Products" and "Agricultural Sanitation", which modify standards currently in force – numbers 412 and 328, respectively -- to bring them into line with global advances in these matters.

The ministers also agreed on a work program to comply with the remaining presidential directives, particularly with reference to perfecting the customs union, the consolidation of the free trade zone, and the adoption of a common agricultural policy.

The Cosmetic Products Decision approved by the ministers includes as one of its principal innovations the recognition of Compulsory Sanitary Notification issued by one member country on behalf of the rest: an important step forward to building a Common Market.

Another innovation is that this Compulsory Sanitary Notification which substitutes the former Sanitary Register system is far simpler and more agile. It consists in the submission of the necessary technical information to the authorities by the interested party, so that the authorities can carry out sanitary control and surveillance activities in the market.

"In this way, we will avoid administrative problems, sometimes unnecessary and unjustified, that prevent cosmetic products from entering our markets, while at the same time we will be reinforcing the sanitary quality control systems for cosmetics," the ministers declared.

The new regulations also establish sub-contracting or maquila (inbond assembly) procedures, in view of the sub-region´s high capacity for the production of cosmetics under this system.

The new Decision on the "Andean Agricultural Health System" redefines and determines more precisely the criteria, procedures, and time limits established in Decision 328, in force to date, in order to improve the application and enforcement of that Decision, both at the national and the sub-regional level..

In addition, it elucidates the concepts of Community Standards, Emergency National Standards, and provides lists of pests and diseases; it incorporates new concepts on the international classification of plant and animal pests, and re-structures the instruments of the Andean Agricultural Health System.

The Decision approved by the ministers adapts the regulations to the new requirements of the sub-regional integration process and to international sanitary standards in agricultural matters, and it incorporates the principles set forth in the WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phyto-sanitary measures.

It also includes, as instruments of the System, the procedures for a member country, or part of one, to declare itself free of pest or disease, and the creation of the Andean systems of sanitary and phyto-sanitary reporting and monitoring.