By Estrella Gutiérrez
CARACAS, Jan 14 1997 (IPS)

The battered image of the Andean Community, both within the bloc and beyond, means 1997 will be a year of definitions for the five members, starting with Peru – the most prickly of the group’s nations.

The trade ministers of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela will meet Thursday and Friday in Lima to study President Alberto Fujimori’s proposal for a common tariff policy with the other partners.

But the Andean diplomats and Venezuelan government officials consulted in Caracas agreed “proposals are not enough now,” and that concrete steps are needed from the elusive Lima administration.

The general feeling in the Andean capitals is that the inertia of Peru remaining outside the trade agreements is more damaging to the block than would be the somewhat improbable withdrawal of Lima.

The trade ministers’ meeting will be followed by a session of the Broadened Council of foreign and trade ministers on Jan. 27, when the case of Peru will be tagged on to discussion of the delayed institutional changes.

The third pending issue: negotiation with the Southern Cone Common Market (Mercosur) to establish a South American Free Trade Area (SAFTA) is a point which Andean technicians and diplomats feel is already underway – with plans for talks to run from February to September.

Furthermore, this objective needs to be reached for the group to achieve greater cohesion and overcome the problems which have lead members and non-members alike to talk of the disbanding of the group and even “annexation” by the Mercosur, even though the Andean integration dynamic is still going ahead.

“The key factor is the political will,” said the Venezuelan Rodrigo Arcaya, member of the Cartagena Agreement Council (Junac), the Lima-based technical organ of the group, which will shortly be replaced by a General Secretariat.

Arcaya, the only person consulted who did not ask for his name to be kept secret, agreed with other sources, that Colombia and Venezuela are forcing Peru to decide on either commitment to or marginalisation from the group.

These two countries have the dominant economies within the bloc, carrying out nearly 70 percent of the already liberalised trade, and were those who provoked the revival of the group in 1989 – it was actually created in 1969 – with a new emphasis on trade liberalisation.

The internal problems of the Ernesto Samper (Colombia) and Rafael Caldera (Venezuela) governments and their consequent lack of attention to the block, were largely responsible for the group crisis. However, they now seem set on getting the group out of this muddle.

Bogota and Caracas have prevented the new Andean Integration System – to modernise the group institutions and the formal life of the Andean Community – from coming into practice, by not presenting the parliamentary ratifications needed, and warning they will not do so until the Peruvian question is resolved.

Moreover, they have made it known they will not attend the March summit to be held in the Bolivian city of Sucre if Peru does not decide to either join or abandon the group.

“Either Peru must blush or we must speak clearly,” said Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Burelli, in an statement Arcaya translated as; “they don’t want any more games from Peru, and they don’t want the current situation to drag on.”

Arcaya and other analysts agreed Lima is still trying to decide on its own technical plan to converge with the Andean tariff system, a project which would be acceptable to the other partners, but which has Fujimori dithering due to opposition from his powerful economy minister, Jose Camet.

The plan is based on establishing three levels of tariffs for non-Andean imports, of 5, 10 and 15 percent, instead of the current single rate of 15 percent.

Ien Peru and its partners would be liberated and the Common External Tariff will be perfected in a second stage to make it fully convergent after the beginning of the new century.

The Junac, made up of two other officials and Arcaya, added to the area, in operation since 1993, and the Customs Union against third parties, in place since 1995 even though the trade flow was protected by bilateral agreements on tariff preferences.

“A three band tariff for Peru is not a perfect outcome but it does not create problems,” said Arcaya, adding the technical analyses show a difference of five points with the other partners “is insignificant in real terms.”

He added that under the suggested formula, 90 percent of the trade between Peru and its partners would be liberated and the Common External Tariff will be perfected in a second stage to make it fully convergent after the beginning of the new century.

The Junac, made up of two other officials and Arcaya, added to entury.

The Junac, made up of two other officials and Arcaya,

Excerpt:

By Estrella Gutiérrez
CARACAS, Jan 14 1997 (IPS)

The battered image of the Andean Community, both within the bloc and beyond, means 1997 will be a year of definitions for the five members, starting with Peru – the most prickly of the group’s nations.

The trade ministers of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela will meet Thursday and Friday in Lima to study President Alberto Fujimori’s proposal for a common tariff policy with the other partners.

But the Andean diplomats and Venezuelan government officials consulted in Caracas agreed “proposals are not enough now,” and that concrete steps are needed from the elusive Lima administration.

The general feeling in the Andean capitals is that the inertia of Peru remaining outside the trade agreements is more damaging to the block than would be the somewhat improbable withdrawal of Lima.

The trade ministers’ meeting will be followed by a session of the Broadened Council of foreign and trade ministers on Jan. 27, when the case of Peru will be tagged on to discussion of the delayed institutional changes.

The third pending issue: negotiation with the Southern Cone Common Market (Mercosur) to establish a South American Free Trade Area (SAFTA) is a point which Andean technicians and diplomats feel is already underway – with plans for talkso decide on either commitment to or marginalisation from the group.

These two countries have the dominant economies within the bloc, carrying out nearly 70 percent of the already liberalised trade, and were those who provoked the revival of theven “annexation” by the Mercosur, even though the Andean integration dynamic is still going ahead.

“The key factor is the political will,” said the Venezuelan Rodrigo Arcaya, member of the Cartagena Agreement Council (Junac), the Lima-based technical organ of the group, which will shortly be replaced by a General Secretariat.

Arcaya, the only person consulted who did not ask for his name to be kept secret, agreed with other sources, that Colombia and Venezuela are forcing Peru to decide on either commitment to or marginalisation from the group.

These two countries have the dominant economies within the bloc, carrying out nearly 70 percent of the already liberalised thin the bloc, carrying out nearly 70 percent of the already lib

Excerpt: