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Andean Ministers of Trade Agree on
Program to Comply with
Presidential Directives
Lima, March 9, 2002.
The
Foreign Trade Ministers of the
Andean Community agreed last night
on a work program to comply with
the Santa Cruz Presidential
directives relating to the Andean
customs union, the free trade zone,
and a common agricultural policy.
With
regard to the customs union, the
Ministers of Trade made progress
on defining the criteria for the
application of a four-tier Common
External Tariff (CET), the four
levels being 0, 5, 10, and 20, as
established by the Presidents. The
Ministers requested the Secretary
General to outline the bases for a
proposal as soon as possible, to
be analyzed by the AC Commission
next April.
The
objective is to make the necessary
guidelines available for the
successful negotiation of the
Common External Tariff (CET), in
as brief a period as possible,
bearing in mind that, according to
the Presidential mandate, the CET
should be in application in
Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru,
and Venezuela "no later than
December 31, 2003".
Progress was also made on defining
criteria regarding price ranges,
and the Secretary General was
entrusted with the task of
developing the corresponding
proposals to orient the coverage
of agricultural and livestock
produce.
As
to the Presidential mandates
regarding the free trade zone, the
Ministers ratified the need to
remove obstacles of any kind that
may hinder smooth operations in
this context, and they decided to
perfect the mechanisms to
facilitate meeting this objective.
The
work program includes a series of
meetings to achieve substantial
advances, before the next
presidential summit, in the
harmonizing of corrective measures
to be employed in case of
distortions.
It
also contemplates the development
by the Secretary General of an
inventory of obstacles to trade,
and the submission of inventories
referring to cases or products
with quantitative restrictions and
other kinds of restrictions
currently in force, of which it
has been notified.
Provisions have also been made for
countries to report cases of
administrative import procedures
where they deem it appropriate to
apply the principle of positive
administrative silence; the
consolidation of such cases by the
Secretary General; the revision of
Decisions currently in force, and
the drafting of Proposals.
The
Ministers of Trade complied with
the Presidential directive to
harmonize sanitary and phyto-sanitary
requirements by approving new
regulations on Farm Sanitation and
Cosmetic Products, that will bring
these standards into line with the
latest global progress in these
matters.
With
a view to promoting the positive
participation of economic agents
in the integration process, the
Ministers created an Ad Hoc
Committee on Oleaginous Products,
to be responsible for seeking
concrete solutions to the problems
encountered in this line. The Ad
Hoc Committee will be responsible
for making the competitive
conditions more transparent and
predictable, and especially for
promoting the improvement of the
competitiveness of the sub-region
in relation to other countries.
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