Address by the Secretary General of the Andean Community, Doctor Guillermo Fernández de Soto, on taking office
Lima, September 19, 2002

On being elected to the position of Secretary General of the Andean Community, I expressed my deeply-felt conviction that our integration project is truly effective and that the aim of deepening the process in order to turn the Andean Community into a spokesman on the hemispheric and international scene is a valid one.

Globalization has ushered in basic cultural, economic and political changes and has altered the course of international cooperation. Andean integration must acknowledge this situation as a fact of life and redirect its strategy accordingly, in an effort to secure a more balanced and meaningful position in the world arena.

I have accepted the difficult mission in the assurance that the Member countries have wagered unswervingly on integration, but above all convinced that this is the only effective way to face up to the challenges posed by the new global environment.

There is no room for doubt, or time to put off the historic projects to which we are deeply committed, given the demands that the new century has posed for us in all areas. A multidimensional and Community-oriented Andean agenda must be grounded in the consolidation, advancement and deepening of our integration.

Our countries today face a dilemma. We can either passively watch world events unfold and accept policies designed for us by others, which they seek to boost in the context of growing globalization, or we can be forgers of initiatives which, based on shared views of our foreign relations, are designed to spur political dialogue and cooperation in promoting joint alternatives for economic and social development that are sustainable in the long term. In that way, we could help to shape a more just hemispheric and international order.

The enormous impact of a technological revolution that progressively sweeps away the obstacles raised by time and distance has become the paradigm of today’s globalization and the revolution of knowledge is the most important feature. No longer are the classical factors of production -land, capital and labor- the source of wealth, as in the past. Globalization today is fueled by knowledge and its use to develop new technologies that link up countries, regions within countries and the most far-flung sites, in an information network that reaches colossal economic, political, social and cultural dimensions.

Historians say that if the five million years that have elapsed since the appearance of “Homo Sapiens” could be represented by one hour, then 95 percent of our knowledge would have come from the last twenty seconds. The twentieth century -that is to say, the last four seconds- is responsible for nine-tenths of all the world’s knowledge. And even in the last second -in the last twenty-five years- we have learned three times as much as during the previous half a million years.

We have advanced on many fronts over the past few years. We have been able to establish a broad-based agenda using a multidimensional approach to Andean integration. It is no longer limited to economic issues alone, but now encompasses a social agenda, the start-up of a common foreign policy, border integration and development and the strengthening of Andean institutions.

All of this has been accomplished within a framework of respect for democratic values that has become the lodestone for our efforts, as enshrined in the “Andean Community Protocol for Democracy.”

Even so, there are still some elements of our institutions that need perfecting. Our accomplishments are a transcendental, yet only an initial, step in the immense task of building our integration.

There are major challenges that call for our utmost efforts. The first and most pressing is to fulfill the mandate handed down by our Presidents this past July in Guayaquil of adopting a Common External Tariff (CET) in less than one month’s time, by October 15, 2002, at the latest. This is essential for Andean integration and for our economic negotiations with third countries, particularly in the FTAA.

A Common External Tariff without loopholes or exceptions must cease to be a continuing, yet unfulfilled, aim. Our immediate and most urgent task is to put that tariff into place before it becomes meaningless in the face of the unstoppable advance of multilateral hemispheric negotiations and bilateral arrangements with the United States and the European Union.

I recently sent a communication to the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and of Foreign Trade, analyzing the status of negotiations for defining the CET. It reveals that the governments need to make the necessary political decisions for its approval and to be perfectly honest in the negotiating process. By strengthening, in the regional and multilateral contexts, the bases of what will be our trade policy toward third countries, these guidelines will set the course for Andean integration.

We have been working in the South American sphere to strengthen our links with MERCOSUR and to promote the development of the region’s infrastructure, but it is time to speed this up. At the hemispheric level, in the face of the major challenge of participating in the formation of a Free Trade Area of the Americas by the year 2005, it is essential for us to consolidate our system of speaking with a single voice, which enabled the Andean Community to play an important role in perfecting the draft Agreement. Both of these cases illustrate why we need to reinforce and hasten our joint efforts in addressing a common agenda.

On the external front, it is important to continue building up the Andean Community’s relations with the United States in order to increase trade and investment flows, diversify our production systems, seek new opportunities and aggressively position the region’s products in that important market.

The mechanisms for political dialogue and cooperation must also be strengthened so that we can work out joint strategies to control illegal drug trafficking and related offenses, as well as terrorism.

It is necessary to successfully achieve a strategic association with the European Union that will allow us to deepen the political dialogue and will lead us to a free trade agreement, using the historical heritage that we have accumulated through the Generalized System of Preferences as its starting point.

We must build closer relations with Canada, China and Russia, an undertaking that will call for our full concentration and commitment.

If we add to the foregoing the objective of incorporating into all of our activities at least three lines of action that are essential to our countries, namely creating more jobs, building up our competitiveness and gaining a position in the world economy on better terms, this will reduce the vulnerability of our integration project to external elements and enhance both its credibility before the Andean nations and its international image.

Along these lines, it is absolutely necessary to carry out the physical infrastructure projects that the Andean Development Corporation (ADC) so aptly identified, in order to strengthen the competitiveness of the region as a whole and promote its economic and social development.

The General Secretariat plays a key role in coordinating these efforts. Its work from the very beginning, guided by the Trujillo Protocol, has been of basic importance to the integration process and should continue to be so.

This executive body, with whose direction I have been entrusted for the next five years, should continue to develop within the Community and progressively assume its representation in the international sphere, with clearly defined and recognized Community powers and functions. This should, in turn, make the coordination of the activities of the technical bodies that make up the various component institutions of the Andean Integration System more effective.

The General Secretariat must administer the integration process and help the Member countries to lay out the major strategy lines. It must also lead the conceptual development of the integration process, watch over its progress and safeguard Community assets. To this, we must add a further task: to make the process understandable to Andean society. In order to accomplish this, the General Secretariat must be a flexible, dynamic institution, with a capacity to respond effectively to new challenges. It must also be endowed with an adequate team of professionals and experts capable of preparing forecasts and strategic analyses who strive continuously to keep up to date in their respective areas.

With the understanding of the countries and the support of institutions like the CAF, I will make every effort to design and propose a mechanism for self-financing that will allow the General Secretariat to do its work without the financial worries that plague it today.

In short, it is essential to continue building up the General Secretariat by broadening its political efforts and its capacity for action in the areas of new priorities that we jointly work out with our Member countries.

I would like to take this opportunity to bring to mind and pay tribute to the work accomplished by Sebastián Alegrett, who with unflagging perseverance, vision of the future and trust in integration directed this organization for the last five years. As our Heads of State so justly recognized in Guayaquil, his commitment to the Andean Community and his effort to promote it constitute an important legacy for the future of the Andean nations.

Dear friends, our Presidents reaffirmed their trust in Andean integration, which should help provide the Member countries with appropriate responses to the challenges posed by globalization in the economic, social, political and cultural spheres; avoid the trends toward social exclusion which that phenomenon is capable of fomenting; contribute to the Andean Community’s growing participation in international trade, investment and knowledge; and safeguard the culture and identity of Andean peoples from the threat of hegemonic imposition.

In order to accomplish this, the Andean Community must become a single market without customs borders or barriers, endowed with mechanisms that decidedly promote the active and democratic participation of Andean citizens and respect for human rights, and that pursues policies that are aimed at improving income distribution. It must also be a peace zone where security mechanisms are in place.

In accomplishing these aims, the Andean Community must reach its goal of having an operational Andean Common Market by the year 2005, extending and reinforcing political cooperation among the Member countries, developing and carrying out a Community Social Agenda and broadening the implementation of a Common Foreign Policy that will make it a valid spokesman with third countries or trading blocs in South America, the hemisphere and the world.

It is my hope that this vision of Andean integration may be turned into a continuing action program for the Member countries and for the institutions belonging to the Andean Integration System. Boosting efforts to attain this vision will be the great challenge and commitment of the General Secretariat under my direction over the next five years.

Our integration is built on strong foundations and the reasons to strengthen and deepen it are myriad. We have behind us an integration legacy built up over 33 years of patient efforts; there are no language or cultural barriers between our countries and, most important, turning to the mandate of history, we were all liberated by a single man, a visionary whose message that “Integration is the nations’ future government” spurs our efforts.

With all of these elements in favor of our integration, I would like to reaffirm what I stated upon being elected Secretary General of the Andean Community: The Andean Community is the best option for our countries! Let us continue to wager on it and to believe in it and in our capacity to transform ourselves with a firm and unquestioning commitment.

Today I assume the challenge of playing an active part in the changes that await us.

Thank you very much.