Address by Andean Community Secretary General Sebastián Alegrett at the opening ceremony of the Special Meeting of Ministers of the Andean Community
Santa Cruz de la Sierra, January 28, 2002

This is perhaps the first time in the history of the Andean Community that as a precautionary measure a summons has been issued at the highest level to jointly confront the critical situations that may arise both in the subregion and internationally. This exercise should lead us to establish an economically integrated geographic zone inhabited by nearly one hundred and fifteen million people that offers true opportunities for the growth of trade and "the expansion of the productive frontier, an essential condition for surmounting our poverty," as Foreign Minister Gustavo Fernández emphasized yesterday.

The momentum and growth of trade among the Andean countries in recent years has not been accompanied by the necessary evolution of a regulatory framework in keeping with the level of integration that we have attained. Today we are more than just a Free Trade Area, but we are not yet a full-fledged Customs Union. At this critical juncture, gaps have been revealed in our regulatory system, fostering growing trade disputes, whose settlement is consequently beyond the Community’s legal jurisdiction at present.

Although legitimate, the application of safeguard measures, the wide range of export subsidies, the inadequate use of systems of active perfection and free trade zones, among other things, create radical distortions in the operation and transparency of the subregion’s market and are detrimental to healthy competition. This brings us face-to-face with a crisis in the making in our integration process that must be dealt with at the highest political level.

In these circumstances, what must the Andean countries do? We can do no more than consolidate the accomplishments of more than thirty years of tireless efforts, while at the same time we move unhesitatingly toward objectives that will place our integration on firm and lasting foundations.

In this connection, by strengthening the Customs Union, we will be able to resolve basic issues that must be conciliated in order to remove the cited distortions, including problems that have been raised by the application of price bands to the agricultural sector.

At the same time, the process of convergence toward macroeconomic targets should be broadened and hastened, in order to cope with the difficulties in foreign exchange that could arise in the Andean subregion.

In our relations with third countries, the enhancement of our Customs Union would make it possible to negotiate jointly with other trading blocs and in multilateral forums.

In that regard, it is very encouraging to note that the economic agents and the governments of the Member Countries, aside from any natural differences that may exist among them, agree on the basic objectives of our integration movement. The approval yesterday in Santa Cruz de la Sierra of the timely and significant Declaration of the Andean Entrepreneurial Advisory Council is a clear demonstration of this fact. That Declaration coincides with the unswerving will of our Heads of State to assume the commitments that may be needed to perfect the Andean Market.

There have been critical moments in the history of our integration process that the Member Countries confronted boldly and with vision. Today the Andean Community no longer represents merely a little extra in the way of markets for our entrepreneurs, but a primary target for their exports.

I congratulate the Government of Bolivia most sincerely for its political initiative in promoting this transcendental gathering. The decisions that are made at this meeting will be crucial for the future and the viability of our integration effort and will put to the test the political will and capacity of the Andean countries to further this project as a matchless means of accelerating our growth, bettering our competitive position, and achieving an adequate place for each and all of our countries in the globalized world.

Thank you very much.