Speech by the President of the Republic of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe Vélez, during the Formal Session honoring his visit to the headquarters of the Andean Community General Secretariat

Lima, October 22, 2004

It is with great respect and enthusiasm that I visit the home of the Andean Community this afternoon. I would like to thank all of you, under the direction of Ambassador Allan Wagner, for the efforts you have made to consolidate this integration process.

It is necessary to fertilize this integration every day. It looks better to me than it did two years ago. Perhaps having jointly undertaken the negotiations with Mercosur or some of the countries having decided to undertake the FTA with the United States or having had to apply for a prudent extension of the European Union’s Generalized System of Preferences to pave the way for the start of a negotiation process with the European Union –perhaps all of this has made us take Andean integration more seriously.

When we don’t take it seriously, others demand that we do so. The Europeans have asked us: how can you have agreements with Europe if you don’t even respect the agreements you have with your Andean neighbors? It will be impossible to negotiate an agreement with Europe until we show that we have a will by complying with all of the Andean rules and regulations.

We would not have been able to move ahead in our negotiation of an agreement with the United States individually. Individually, the negotiation of the agreement with Mercosur would have been difficult, and the effects, quite possibly, complex. Despite the progress that has been made, however, there are still many Andean Community rules and regulations that are not complied with and Andean Community processes that have not been advanced sufficiently. We must devote our efforts to dealing with this situation.

I have proposed to my distinguished colleagues, the Presidents of our sister countries, that we make an effort to abide by all of the rules and regulations that are not being obeyed. I have proposed that we look into the trade institutions that could be causing problems. By way of example, if any country has trade institutions that could facilitate the violation of Andean provisions, let us take the decision together to overcome those problems, to eliminate those loopholes in our domestic institutions.

I am convinced that challenges await us that will require our moving from theory to practice. When I assumed the Presidency of Colombia, the idea of reaching an agreement with Mercosur appeared to be utopian, at least in my country. It wasn’t even mentioned. We thought it, but didn’t consider it important. Now we’ve overcome both barriers. We negotiate without fear, we consider that we have reached some equitable agreements and, at the same time, today we value the importance of that integration with Mercosur.

The agreement with the United States opens up a major opportunity to strengthen our integration even more.

The three countries that have negotiated that agreement should be very clear about the fact that our being able to present that agreement to our nations and to the people of the United States will depend upon our ability to show in practice that the agreement that has been signed is equitable. That must be our challenge.

Today’s globalization problem is not a problem of ideologies. As I just told the Peruvian Congress, nations cannot have ideological borders in place when seeking opportunities. The dividing line is equity –that is only line we cannot cross over. We must also leave the way clear so that tomorrow or the next day, when our sister countries of Bolivia and Venezuela decide the time has come to join that process, we can help them find their place in it.

And as we stated in Quito, Ambassador Wagner, those countries that do not enter the process as yet must be made to feel that those of us that are negotiating are doing so committed to ensuring that the rights of the countries that do not enter will be fully respected within the Andean Community.

I invite you to adopt an agenda that will put into effect what we have negotiated with Mercosur, that will complete the agreement with the United States, that can show good results this December in relation to Europe’s Generalized System of Preferences, and that will offer assured prospects for our negotiations with Europe.

Nothing will be gained if, faced by the ten-year period the European Union has set for us, we do not take advantage of those ten years to negotiate a permanent treaty.

Investors the world over are looking for long-term certainty today. And if the three or four years of the ATPDEA with the United States is a very short period, too short to give investors the confidence they require, an extremely short period feared by investors that has become one of the reasons why we are seeking a more permanent agreement, the ten years offered by the European Union are not the long-term period investors demand, either.

That is why we must move from unilateral concessions to permanent agreements. But we must not stop there. I am concerned that when we enter into an agreement with the United States, Central America and the Caribbean having already signed an agreement with that country, there will be no agreement in place between Central America and the Caribbean and the Andean Community.

I don’t want to even imagine what a situation of that kind would be like, with United States products entering Central America, the Caribbean, and our countries duty-free, but barriers raised between Central American and Caribbean products and those of the Andean countries. That would be a distortion of our integration processes. For that reason, Mr. Ambassador, Andean community Director, distinguished Ministers, Ambassadors and officials, we must step up our agenda with Central America.

I would like to call your attention to the fact that Canada must be watching the course of our negotiation of the FTA with the United States with some curiosity. It wouldn’t be surprising if, when these negotiations are perfected, Canada decided definitely to negotiate with us. When we are on the verge of completing our negotiations with the United States, we should call upon Canada, together, in order to accelerate an agreement with that country.

We should also take advantage of the steps that have already been taken toward rapprochements with Asia, with the Chinese economy, with the Indian economy, with some of our Latin and South American neighbors, in order to seek out these markets as a team.

President Toledo has been telling me about Peru’s advances toward the Chinese market, Peru’s exploration in seeking an agreement with the Chinese. We have to do the same thing.

I am worried that our balance of trade with China will grow, because their growth forces them to buy commodities or energy products from us. The day they resolve their energy problem or find other sources of commodities, we may have a serious problem on our hands if we don’t have an agreement in place.

Colombia’s exports to China have grown enormously, fueled by our supply of coal and oil. But what will happen in the future, when China rapidly finds replacements for that oil and Colombia can no longer count on its oil export earnings?

The other side of the picture is that Chinese products are being smuggled into the country and we appear to be helpless to stop it. I think it would be much better to face up to these situations, the real sources of the evolution of integration, and cope with them seated around a negotiating table discussing an agreement.

I find it extremely troubling that we are being distracted by intellectual digressions, by prejudices, and are not doing our utmost to rapidly seek integration with the Asian economies, with China.

I would like to formally ask the Andean Community to study the possibility of exploring that agreement. In fact, four agreements: one with Central America and the Caribbean, another with Europe, a third with Canada, and a fourth with the Chinese. I believe that is a necessity. Let’s not lose any time. The Community working at full speed can lead us and help us in that quest.

The CAF has turned into an important financial support. Our governments are beginning to see in the CAF the multilateral organizations’ most speedy paymaster.

There has been talk of having a Monetary Fund for Latin America and similar proposals have been made –I think all of this could lead to reinforcing the CAF. I see an immediate, practical possibility, which is to increase some countries’ shares and to open the way to the acceptance of others.

We cannot ignore Brazil and Mexico’s interest in participating, or participating more, in the CAF.

I consider that the capitalization and contributions offered by those countries to the CAF could assist in the necessary build-up of an institution that has done much good and has helped to resolve many of our countries’ problems.

Having the instrument, the experience of an efficient instrument, the trust of third countries and their interest in capitalizing it, the commitment of our countries to honor, strictly and with devotion, the debts they have incurred to the CAF, why should we consider other alternatives? The most practical thing would be to encourage the CAF and promote its growth. That would be the solution.

I have come to greet you filled with faith in the integration process. Let me add these concerns to your exercise in reflection. And let me say that the Andean Community must help us get the International Monetary Fund to finally make some substantial changes. Infrastructure projects, particularly those of the regional integration process, must be excluded from the Fund’s accounting system.

Credit lines for strategic social investments must be given a guarantee so that more advantageous terms and interest rates can be secured in the markets.

As President Toledo has put it, hunger cannot wait. Social cohesion in our South America cannot wait, either.

There is nothing to be gained from the International Monetary Fund, I’m convinced, if each of us speaks for itself only. The Andean Community must stand behind each of us, so that we can make demands of this kind.

In the case of building infrastructure, I believe that we must move from words to deeds. It is time for the Andean Community to prod us to define strategic works in the IIRSA (Initiative for South American Regional Infrastructure Integration) –an IIRSA that should not be just another new bureaucratic body, but a program, one that hopefully would be managed by the Andean Community. I can see no reason to create any more bodies. We must make the most of those that already exist – expanding their social purpose, if you wish.

The IIRSA should be a project without a specific administrative body, assigned to organizations like the Andean Community, which would define the regional infrastructure projects for us, urge each of the countries to move ahead with those projects, and help us obtain the special financing lines we need for that purpose.

Much has been said about the South American Waterway, when all we have are the Bolivian and Paraguayan segments and a tiny portion of those of Brazil and Argentina. The link-ups with Peru, with Colombia, with Venezuela, and with Ecuador are still on hold.

I cannot understand why, having coming to the end of the twentieth century and beginning of the twenty-first, we still have no Pan American Highway. On November first, my Government collaborators and I will meet with President Torrijos. We are behind in identifying the point in the Darién where the highways should interconnect. And they must first be built. The ecological issue must be confronted realistically. It is easier to safeguard our ecology by opening up the avenues so that we can watch over it than to keep that ecology hidden, just to wake up and suddenly find that it has been destroyed.

We must take steps to maximize our electricity integration and to build that integration where it does not yet exist. Colombia has been asking to be included in the Panama-Puebla Plan. We find it beyond belief that the Central American countries have achieved important integration and we, who are so close to them physically, are still so far from reaching that point.

We have asked this in the area of infrastructure and basically with regard to three projects. And in our electrical interconnection. That interconnection must be built to the north and strengthened to the south. Our economies may find in the coming decades that their great obstacle to progress lies in their supply of energy.

We have asked for Colombia’s inclusion in the Panama-Puebla Plan for the building of a gas pipeline that should extend from our sister country of Venezuela, run through northern Colombia and connect up with the Panama- Puebla Plan. And, of course, the Highway.

My invitation is to make this a common task of all our countries, through the Andean Community. It is fine for one country to propose an idea and support it, and another to do likewise, but, in the end, the task is simpler, the effort more fruitful, if we put our efforts into achieving these purposes jointly.

Had we each followed our own course in regard to Mercosur, it is quite likely that we would not have seen the progress we have made together.

Thank-you, Mr. Secretary General, Ambassador Wagner. Thank-you, distinguished Ambassadors of our sister nations. Thank-you my valued countrymen and officials of the Andean Community.

The Community’s credibility will depend increasingly on the results it has to show. We have come here this afternoon to demonstrate our faith in the Community.

Integration processes are like soccer games. The fans like to see the teams play well in center field, but in the end, no matter how well they play in center field, they will be forgotten unless they score goals. People applaud a good pass in center field, but that is not what they remember after the game. What matters in the end are the goals that have been scored. Let us move ahead to score some goals. Thank-you very much.