Speech by Andean Community Secretary General, Ambassador Sebastian Alegrett at the Twelfth Andean Presidential Council
Lima, June 9, 2000

Messrs. Presidents:

Three days ago in Caracas, as a worthy preamble to this Twelfth Presidential Council, a stirring event held during the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Andean Development Corporation gave me an unforgettable lesson in integration: This was the first concert to be performed by an Andean Youth Symphony Orchestra made up of 160 young performers from our five countries. Their magnificent presentation showed me clearly what we are capable of doing together.

An orchestra is an example of solidary interdependence, of a team united around an important goal. It produces dialogue and complementarity, simultaneously and coherently. I cannot find a better model for our integration movement. So should the countries, bodies, and institutions of the Andean Integration system operate in the mission of uniting our economies and our societies.

One year ago, at the meeting of the Andean Presidential Council, we were celebrating the Thirtieth Anniversary of the signing of the Cartagena Agreement amidst two major crisis that wreaked havoc in our economies: the disaster produced by an act of nature and the international financial turmoil. Our trade suffered severely as a result. Even so, our countries did not give way to the temptation of turning back. Precisely the contrary; they used the situation to reaffirm their will to move our integration ahead when you, Messrs. Presidents, set yourselves the ambitious but achievable target of having an Andean Common Market in place by the year 2005.

Time has proven you right. We note with optimism the 30 percent growth in our trade over the first quarter of this year. If this trend holds in coming months, we will be able to return to our pre-crisis levels.

Our faith in the Andean Common Market rests on the unmistakable opportunities for economic growth and development it offers us. It will benefit production and employment directly. Intra-Andean trade, consisting for the most part of manufactured goods, is known to be the most vigorous trade, with a capacity for producing income and jobs far greater proportionally than primary – export activities. Integration, therefore, is a valid response to the social challenge and the demands for changes in the production systems of our countries.

It is by creating jobs that we can move ahead steadily in overcoming the poverty of large sectors of the Andean peoples, alleviating the social conflicts engendered by their exclusion, and enhancing the democratic governance of our nations.

In our progression toward the formation of the Common Market, we urgently need to improve on our Free Trade Area by settling issues that are still pending in order to ensure that our products obtain unrestricted access to our own markets. To accomplish this, we must simplify customs formalities and border crossings to the utmost degree; eliminate all barriers to trade; and facilitate the growth of agricultural trade by applying transparent standards and procedures for health control and adopting a Common Agricultural Policy. Once these have been achieved, we will have laid the necessary groundwork for moving ahead rapidly with the construction of the Andean Common Market.

There have been other milestones attained this past year that I would like to point out, Messrs. Presidents. I am referring, in particular, to the action taken by the Advisory Council of Treasury or Finance Ministers, Central Bank Presidents, and economic planning officers, to facilitate macroeconomic coordination and harmonization among the countries of the region, as we will learn from the report to be given by its Chairman, Peru’s Minister of Economy and Finance, Dr. Efraín Goldenberg.

No less important is the projection in international forums of our image as a group. Not only have we reinforced our participation in the FTAA through a single spokesmanship, but we have also concluded the negotiation of trade preferences with Brazil and Argentina and will initiate them this month with Paraguay and Uruguay, in order to bring the first stage agreed upon with Mercosur to a close. We can then go on to define the free trade area that should become operational by the middle of next year.

Another matter of major importance to the Andean Community is the understanding reached with the European Union to conduct a study that will serve as the basis for negotiating an Association Agreement with Europe involving a newly strengthened cooperation and political dialogue and the establishment of a Free Trade Area.

Pursuant to the mandate handed down by you in Cartagena, Messrs. Presidents, to execute a policy on border development and integration, the Andean governments and the General Secretariat have made a start in that direction in an area that holds promise for future successes. We must bring our integration effort to fruition among vast sectors of the population that live in regions which, in the Andean case, tend to be relatively less developed, if not actually depressed. The proposal has been made to establish border integration areas and binational service centers at the borders, as well as to implement a data bank of border integration projects at the General Secretariat, with the assistance of the IDB and the CAF, for the development of our common borders and the benefit of their inhabitants.

As you can see, this has been a difficult year, but at the same time a promising one. It is in this spirit that we must address the huge tasks and challenges that lie ahead of us. The first and most important is to build the Common Market. We must have a clearly established action program to which we are committed that will mark the way to the target the Andean Community has set itself.

The Social Agenda continues to be a pending issue in the integration process. While advances have been made, it is true, in the areas of labor and health, much still remains to be done. In other areas, such as the development of an awareness and culture of integration that will make it a part of the daily lives of our countries, we are just beginning. Here, I would like to once again dwell on the lack of citizen participation in the integration movement and the need to find a mechanism for overcoming this problem.

Messrs. Presidents, inasmuch as Andean integration was conceived as a project resulting from Latin America’s vocation, it is highly important to offer full backing for the initiatives that are being put forward today. I am referring specifically to the convening by the President of Brazil of a South American Summit to take place this year to give shape to agreements that will turn South America into a space for political cooperation and economic integration. President Cardoso’s initiative is probably one of the most interesting challenges before the Andean countries today. It has to do with the harmonizing and balancing role the Andean Community should play in building this South American space and, subsequently in Latin American and hemispheric relations. I believe that the maturity of the Andean Community and the progress it has made in defining its common foreign policy will enable its participation, while bearing its own unique characteristics, to be both constructive and effective.

Messrs. Presidents: At the initiative of our host, President Alberto Fujimori, this summit meeting was conceived as a parenthesis for reflection among the Heads of State. There is nothing more appropriate than to make a stop on our course to reaffirm our commitment to history, that of building our future together.