Speech of the President of the Republic of Peru, Alejandro Toledo, in the Closing Ceremony of the 15th Andean Presidential Summit

Quito, July 12, 2004

Peru is receiving today from the sister Republic of Ecuador and other sister countries, the honor-filled request to assume the Presidency of the Andean Community for a period of one year. We take on this task with great expectation, at a time marked by the beginning of the negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement of three Member Countries with the United States; within the framework of the strengthening of relations with MERCOSUR; based on the signing of a Complementary Economic Integration Agreement and the efforts deployed to secure a Free Trade Agreement with the European Union.

President Lucio, my friend: Allow me to express to you, to the people of Ecuador and to this venue - dear Quito – our profound thanks for your generous welcome. You and our Andean colleagues are going through challenging times in our community, but we Andeans well know that through the course of the Inca Trail, we are always going to find tiny, small and very big rocks in the way. But, as Peruvian historian Jorge Basadre once said, our people are bigger than their problems.

Today, I come to tell you that I am very joyful in accepting the initiative of Presidents Lucio Gutiérrez and Hugo Chávez, to hold an Extraordinary Andean Summit for Political Dialogue on the future of integration. We will open up the Peruvian hearts for you. We will hold the event on December 7, on the heights of Machu Picchu, in Cusco. We will do it on the occasion of the 3rd South American Summit, which is also coincidental with the 180th anniversary of the Battle of Ayacucho, and with the organization of the Anfictionic Congress of Panama. Peruvians will be waiting for you in December.

Lady friends and gentleman friends,

Our people have lived on Andean territory for thousands of years. The passing of time has formed the diversity of our culture and the identity of our own national realities. Latin America, our America, is not a creation of only the independence seeking efforts which shook our people between 1810 and 1826. Our Latin America is the result of a long historical trek, which produced the blend of races in our nations, the ethnic and multi-cultural characteristics of our respective nations that we see today. This task, which corresponds to our governments and people, is not only a response to the challenges of globalization, it is also a new encounter with our glorious past.

For 35 years now, governments, businessmen and regular citizens, work towards the materialization of Latin American integration. Sure, it was never easy. It could not be easy, because, as Basadre said, beyond Bolívar’s and Sánchez Carrion’s ideals, and frustrated diplomatic initiatives, the Republic finally came to be with non-united states resulting in the South, with the historical load of having integrated ourselves during more than one and a half century into the markets of the industrialized countries, something which we have done behind each other’s backs.

The task of building integration today, is more challenging than ever. Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru and Venezuela presently exchange goods in the market, in a Free Trade Zone, which has been practically optimized to the most, and this is equivalent to US$ 16 billion.

It is true that the participation of inter Andean trade, in relation to the global trade of the countries from outside the region, is still insufficient. We only amount to 11%, although in some cases, such as Colombia and Bolivia, they are as much as 29% and 30%. The progress made in integration has made it possible to generate more than 567,000 jobs. This is part of the integration work.

In this context, dear Presidents, any decision we make today would have to follow the path of the future. The future of our integration will depend on the decision we make today.

It is in this regard that Peru accepts with much interest - and publicly commits to carry out - the work we are starting today, which has to do with the proposal made by the General Secretariat of the Andean Community for a new strategic design of the integration process, to adjust it, and to make it functional to the challenges imposed by the international context, marked by a globalization which must inevitably have a human face. A globalization process which must inevitably have respect for cultural diversity. Gentlemen, our Member Countries can today integrate themselves through the poles serving as internal joints, but they must be joined together under such concepts as equality and social inclusion.

Lady friends and gentleman friends, Peru accepts this Presidency with great interest, with a deep sense of responsibility. This is because the road to follow is not an easy one, but, because it is not easy, strength comes from the work itself, the work which has been carried out and compounded by the Community’s directors. I wish to state my profound gratefulness and congratulations to the leadership - under the direction of President Gutiérrez, during the year he has been steering the Andean Community. His work will make our work easier. Based on this terrain, which has been cultivated with responsibility and dynamism, by you, Mr. President, the government of Peru will hold the Presidency looking for the effective consolidation of the community’s ideal, and aiming at making the strategic dream in which we are embarked, a reality.

According to the directives resulting from the Quito meeting, the Peruvian Presidency of the Community will seek to make even further progress on the process for a CAN - MERCOSUR convergence. We want to see a South American Free Trade Area. We want the Andean and South American territory to be interconnected through the inter-oceanic links of the South American Initiative for Regional Integration. We want the multi-purpose road systems to generate and consolidate intra-border regional markets. We want the progress made on the free traffic of people within MERCOSUR and within the Andean Community, to become common in South America. We want to encourage intra Andean investments and intra South American investments. We want to consolidate an integrated environment which would signal the creation of a South American community of nations.

We have a mandate, and we will honor it: that is, the start of negotiations to achieve a Free Trade Agreement with the European Union. We will continue with the work to be conducted for a Free Trade Agreement with the United States, always within the legal system of the Andean Community. We will continue with trade integration through the optimization of the Free Trade Area.

But the time has come to speak not only of customs duties. Our integration effort cannot only be limited to trade or customs duties. The time has come to claim the value of the Andean Community’s social agenda. The time has come to implement a Common External Policy. The time has come to dream that it is possible for university students from the Andean Community to move about freely, without a passport, and be able to fully use their professional degrees.

Lady friends and gentleman friends, we accept this mandate with an enormous sense of responsibility, because we see it as a high honor, to be challenged to walk firmly towards the integration of the Andean Community, of South America and in general of our race-blended Latin America. We will dedicate our efforts in that direction next year.

Finally, I want to repeat and thank the Pro Tempore Secretariat of Ecuador, which mission comes to an end today, because of the important achievements attained since it started its work, for the progress made in the mandates set forth and for what has been resolved today.

God bless Andean integration, God bless South American integration, God give us strength to walk towards a globalized world with an integrated Latin America, preserving its identity. Join me in applause for the Ecuadorian team, which arduously worked while it steered the Andean Community, the organization of this encounter included.

Many thanks to all of you, thank you Ecuador. Thank you very much.