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CAN promotes strategy of
rapprochement with Canada
Lima, Apr. 19, 99 The Andean
Community will put into effect a
strategy of rapprochement with
Canada aimed at increasing trade
and investment flows and
strengthening relations with this
country, which is a member of the
North American Free Trade
Association, together with the
United States and Mexico.
As
part of this strategy, the Andean
Community-Canada Seminar will be
held tomorrow, April 20, in
Ottawa, for the purpose of
presenting the situation of
integration and its prospects, the
investment opportunities, and the
Andean foreign relations agenda,
among other topics.
A
meeting of CAN representatives
with Canadian Foreign Trade
Minister Sergio Marchi has been
planned for that same day, so that
they can discuss the terms of an
understanding on trade and
investment geared toward improving
the trade flows between the two
parties.
At
that Seminar, presentations will
be made on "The Situation of the
CAN and its Prospects," "Institutional
and Juridical Aspects of the CAN",
"Investment Opportunities", "Role
of the CAF in the promotion and
financing of investment in the
Andean countries," and "Andean
Foreign Trade Relations Strategy."
The
speakers will be the Chairman of
the CAN Commission, Marta Lucía
Ramírez; CAN Secretary General
Sebastián Alegrett; Peru's
Minister of Industry, César Luna
Victoria; CAF Executive President
Enrique García and the Minister of
Industry and Foreign Trade of
Venezuela, Gustavo Márquez,
respectively.
A
panel discussion is also scheduled
on the subject of "Relations
between the Andean Community and
Canada." The panelists will be
Jorge Crespo, Bolivian Foreign
Trade Minister; José Luis Icaza,
Vice-Minister of Trade of Ecuador;
and Víctor Rico, Director General
of the CAN; and Canadian Minister
of Foreign Trade; Kathryn
McCallion, Deputy Vice-Minister
and Chief Trade Delegate and
George Haynal, Deputy Vice-Minister
for the Americas.
The
Andean Community's total
accumulated exports to Canada over
the 1969-1998 period amounted to
23 billion 599 million dollars,
while the accumulated imports from
the latter country totaled 17
billion 760 million dollars.
Exports to Canada of the
integration movement during its
three decades of existence,
reached their maximum level in
1980, with a total of 1 billion
802 million dollars, while today
total sales to that country have
settled at 670 million (1998).
At
the same time, Andean imports from
Canada have grown steadily since
1993 to a sum of 1 billion 347
million dollars in 1998, giving
Canada a 677 million dollar trade
surplus for that year.
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