First CAN-Brazil negotiation meeting to be held April 21 to 23

Lima, Apr 16, 99. The CAN General Secretariat headquartered in Lima announced that the first negotiation meeting between the Andean Community and Brazil will take place from April 21 to 23 in Brasilia.

At that meeting, the Tariff Preferences Agreement between the two parties will be negotiated.

The proposal to hold the meeting was put forward to the CAN by Brazilian Foreign Minister, Luiz Felipe Lampreia, on March 29, following that country's proposal to negotiate individually or collectively with the Andean countries, instead of doing so bloc-to-bloc, together with its Mercosur partners, as has been done since April 1998.

As for the partial scope agreements signed by the CAN countries and the Mercosur, which were to expire on March 30, Brazil decided to extend them for three months, to June 30, while Uruguay and Paraguay expressed their willingness to extend them to December 1999.

Argentina, for its part, yesterday announced its decision to extend the agreements to June 30, the same date as that set by Brazil.

Andean diplomatic sources recognized that different rates of negotiation were being opened up with the Mercosur countries and ratified their interest in having those processes converge toward the shaping of a free trade zone that would strengthen South America's capacity to act on the international scene.