Andean countries and the United States analyze stands vis-a-vis the FTAA and WTO

Lima, Oct. 5, 1999. Andean Vice-Ministers of Foreign Trade and United States Deputy Trade Representative Richard Fisher explored the agreements and differences on key issues to be taken up at the Ministerial Meetings of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and the World Trade Organization (WTO), scheduled for November of this year.

So announced Peruvian Trade Minister César Luna Victoria, in his capacity of Chairman of the Andean Community Commission (CAN), in reporting on the results of the meeting that concluded today at the organization's General Secretariat headquarters in Lima.

The Minister stated that the Andean countries will instruct their negotiators to have a draft agreement on hemispheric free trade ready in 18 months' time, when the VI FTAA Ministerial Meeting convenes in Buenos Aires.

That draft agreement should incorporate explicitly all of the consensuses reached by the 34 participant countries in the FTAA, together with the lacks of such agreements, in order to progressively whittle down differences until the negotiations reach an end in 2005.

Luna Victoria reaffirmed the interest of the CAN in obtaining an extension of the Andean Tariff Preferences Act (ATPA), due to expire in December 2001, a broadening of its terms to encompass textiles, garments and footwear, and the inclusion of Venezuela among its beneficiaries.

The meeting with Fisher and with United States trade officials revealed that the American federal government "is amenable to the possibility of taking up the issue in the year 2000 and of including Venezuela," although the final decision will be up to the Congress, he went on to add.

"The United States is skeptical about the possibility of broadening the coverage to take in new products," the Minister pointed out, and for that reason the Andean countries "are reworking their strategy in order to accomplish this aim as part of the deregulation of hemispheric trade."

Under the ATPA, approved by the United States Congress in December 1991 as a contribution to the war against drugs being waged by the Andean countries, most Bolivian, Colombian, Ecuadorian, and Peruvian exports enter the United States market at reduced tariffs.

On being asked about the agreements and differences between the Andean countries and the United States with regard to the FTAA and WTO Ministerial meetings, CAN sources revealed that Fisher was in agreement with maintaining the differential treatment being given to the countries according to the size of their economy. He warned, however, that just how that treatment would be implemented would depend upon the results of the negotiations.

Furthermore, while the United States wishes to include labor and environmental issues on the agenda to be negotiated in the FTAA and the WTO, the Andean countries, although acknowledging the importance of these matters, feel that they should be addressed in specific forums like the International Labor Organization and the environmental conventions.