"ASEAN – Andean Cooperation: An Andean Perspective"
1^st Symposium on ASEAN – Andean Cooperation in the New Millennium
Bangkok -- May 8, 2000
Presentation by Ambassador Sebastian Alegrett, Secretary General of the Andean Community

It is a real pleasure to be in Bangkok among such a distinguished audience, to jointly explore how to strengthen cooperation between the Andean Community and ASEAN in the new millennium.

Thank you Minister Surin Pitsuwan for hosting this event. I had the pleasure of being here recently for UNCTAD X and I am thrilled to be back for this symposium.

I would also like to thank His Excellency Mr. Jorge Castañeda, the Ambassador of Peru, for his tireless efforts.

I will begin my presentation with an overview of the Andean Community, before I proceed to the main subject of our symposium, which is strengthening cooperation between our two economic and political blocks. I hope that you are as pleasantly surprised as I was, to learn about the similarities between our two regional integration projects.

The Member States of the Andean Community include Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, which have a combined population of more than 110 million, total GDP of about 300 billion dollars, and a total trade of 80 billion dollars.

The Andean integration process began in 1969, two years after the birth of ASEAN. In fact, both our integration projects recently celebrated their 30^th Anniversary.

Perhaps our most important achievement is the creation of a Free Trade Area between our Member States. Trade among the Andean countries increased fourfold between 1990 and 1998. A remarkable feature of the trade within the Andean Subregion is the heavy predominance of manufactured goods, which account for almost 90% of the total.

Trade expansion also has been accompanied by a surge of foreign investment and has given rise to significant investment flows among the Member States. Andean enterprises have forged numerous strategic alliances to take advantage of the expanded market.

In addition to the Free Trade Area, we have a Common External Tariff, which is currently applied by the majority of our Member States. Furthermore, we have adopted common disciplines in such diverse areas as agriculture, intellectual property, competition, customs procedures, rules of origin, sanitary measures, technical standards, foreign investment, among others.

In addition to the free movement of goods, we are undertaking a process that will lead to the total liberalization of the trade in services within the Andean Community by the year 2005. We have already adopted a framework for the liberalization of basic telecommunications services.

Furthermore, we have adopted common transportation policies, which include an "open skies" agreement and the liberalization of maritime shipping services.

These achievements have been possible largely because the Andean Community also has a solid institutional and legal framework.

The bodies and institutions of the Andean Community are the following:

The Andean Presidential Council, comprised by the Heads of States of the five Member Countries, is the highest-level, political body of the Andean Community. It oversees the integration process and provides political guidance by issuing Directives.

The Andean Council of Foreign Ministers and the Andean Commission – comprised by the Ministers of Trade and Industry – are policymaking bodies. They also legislate by adopting laws, called Decisions, that are directly and immediately applicable in the five Member States. Andean Decisions prevail over domestic legislation.

The General Secretariat is the executive body of the Andean Community. As a supranational organ, it acts only according to the interests of the subregion as a whole. The General Secretariat’s responsibilities include providing technical assistance to the Member States, proposing draft legislation to the Council of Foreign Ministers and the Commission, and ensuring compliance with Andean Community Law, among others. The Secretary General also issues binding rules called Resolutions.

The judicial body of the Andean Community is the Andean Court of Justice. It has jurisdiction over claims alleging that a Member State is violating Andean Community Law and those seeking to invalidate a Resolution of the Secretary General or a Decision of the Council of Foreign Ministers or the Commission. These claims may be filed by Member States, the General Secretariat or private parties. The Andean Court of Justice may also conduct arbitration procedures, hear labor disputes involving bodies or institutions of the Andean Community, and claims alleging that a body or institution of the Andean Community is not fulfilling its responsibilities.

The Andean Court of Justice plays another important role. Whenever a domestic court must apply Andean Community Law, it must first request the interpretation of the Andean Court of Justice. This ensures that Andean Community Law is applied uniformly throughout the five Member States.

Thanks to these procedures, the Andean Community is characterized by a high-degree of legality and transparency. In turn, this affords exporters and importers the legal security that their investments require.

The Andean Community also includes the Andean Parliament – its deliberative body -, the Andean Development Corporation and the Latin American Reserve Fund – its financial institutions -, the Business and Labor Advisory Councils, the Simon Bolivar Andean University, and various Social Agreements responsible for promoting integration in specific fields.

As we begin this new century, the Andean Community is setting new goals for itself. The first goal is the creation of an Andean Common Market. This will require ensuring the free movement of goods, services, capital and labor.

In addition to moving toward a Common Market, we are also implementing a Common Foreign Policy. In fact, the Andean Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs has already adopted general principles and objectives for our Common Foreign Policy as well as policies to be followed.

Notwithstanding the success of our integration process, our Member Countries have recognized the need to seek markets beyond the Andean Community. In this regard, the Andean Community has emerged as a vehicle through which Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, are jointly exploring ways to strengthen their economic ties with other economic blocks and particularly with our regional partners.

For instance, the Andean Community is currently negotiating as a block with Mercosur. We have already completed preferential trade agreements with Brazil and Argentina, and we intend to conclude a Free Trade Agreement with Mercosur next year.

The Andean Community also is participating actively in the negotiations toward a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). I should note that in these negotiations the five Andean countries are participating with a common position and a single voice.

It is also important to stress the Andean Community’s commitment to a global economic system that is open to trade and investment under the framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO). We are continually striving to achieve more and better access for our products in global markets.

Given the similarities in our goals and programs, I believe that the opportunities for increased cooperation between the Andean Community and ASEAN are endless.

Trade promotion is one area with great potential for cooperation. Trade between the Andean Community and ASEAN is relatively small, although it grew steadily between 1990 and 1997. It fell during 1998, mainly as a consequence of the global economic crisis. Nevertheless the potential for growth exists and it depends on us to develop it through common efforts to overcome the different kinds of obstacles, particularly the lack of information about our mutual requirements.

Investment is another important area for cooperation. Beginning in the late 1980’s and the early 1990’s, the Member States of the Andean Community undertook dramatic reforms, opening their economies to foreign trade and investment. The investment regimes of the Member States of the Andean Community are very liberal and offer very interesting opportunities for investors from ASEAN.

While there are many activities that can be undertaken by the Andean Community and ASEAN’s governments and institutions to promote greater trade and investment flows between our two economic blocks, I must underscore the importance of involving our private sectors in these initiatives. I feel very strongly that by fostering greater ties between our private sectors we will promote greater trade and investment between us. We are especially interested in learning about the activities undertaken by ASEAN to promote the participation of the private sector in its regional cooperation process.

I am confident that the roundtable discussion that will take place this morning will provide interesting insights on this matter.

Cooperation in science and technology is also essential from our perspective. I have read with great interest about cooperation within ASEAN in these fields. Moreover, many of ASEAN’s Member States have emerged as exporters of high technology products.

We are also trying to implement programs in science and technology within the Andean Community, where cooperation is still incipient. From our perspective, there is a lot that we can learn from ASEAN with respect to cooperation in these areas. I am sure that we will have a very interesting discussion about these topics in the roundtable scheduled for this afternoon.

In both the areas related to trade and investment, on the one hand, and science and technology, on the other, there is another opportunity for cooperation between the Andean Community and ASEAN. I believe there is much we can learn form each other’s experiences with regional integration. I see great benefit in comparing our experiences and programs and learning from each other’s successes and failures. We could easily undertake this kind of cooperation between the two Secretariats.

Mutual cooperation should lead to greater and stronger linkages between us. In turn, this will help our Member States and their private sectors take fuller advantage of the opportunities existing in the global economy in the new millennium.

Before concluding, Your Excellency, I would like to propose that we organize a second symposium next year in Lima to continue this dialogue and to further strengthen the cooperation among us and between our private sectors.