By Estrella Gutiérrez
CARACAS, May 12 1997 (IPS)

The Andean Community ministers set a date in June with their Mercosur counterparts, to speed on liberalisation agreements with Central America and the Caribbean in order to negotate within the FTAA as a bloc.

Those in charge of the integration process between Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela also studied ways to persuade Peru not to separate from the block, although little could be done as the matter is in the hands of a special commission.

Ministers Victor Rico, of Bolivia, Carlos Ronderos, of Colombia, Benigno Sotomayor, of Ecuador and Freddy Rojas of Venezuela all agreed great steps would be taken towards the open regionalism promoted by the bloc at the meeting.

The Ministerial Commission asked Rojas to tell the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) ministers the Andean bloc aims to establish agreements for the gradual formation of an eight nation free trade zone by the end of the year.

The Mercosur, like the Andean Community, is made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, and it is already operating a prototype free trade area and tariff union.

Ministers from the two groups will meet in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, during the annual meeting of trade ministers of the 34 American nations, when the constitution of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) will be discussed.

The plan is to start full negotiations in March 1998, in order to have the bloc established by 2005.

The Belo Horizonte meeting will be followed by a formal meeting between the eight Andean Community and Mercosur representatives on June 24 and 25 in Cartagena, Colombia, said Ronderos.

This will mark the move of discussions into the control of the ministers now the technical research is over, and they will develop a schedule for meetings, setting deadlines on the issues, said Sotomayor.

What the Andean Community hopes for this year with the Mercosur is a simple free trade zone to come into action gradually, reaching full operation around 2005.

Rico said it was keen to join the two-bloc agreement even though it already established an individual liberalisation agreement with the Mercosur.

The greatest surprise of the meeting was the opening of negotiations with both the Central American nations and the English-speaking Caribbean (Caricom), said Rojas.

Ronderos said that at present the Central American group is united in its interest in mulitilateral liberalisation with the Andeans, despite Costa Rican resistence to a similar initiative offered bilaterally by Colombia and Venezuela between 1992 and 1994.

The minister also said Colombia and Venezuela, which both already established non-reciprocal tariff removal agreements with the 13-nation bloc, is to bring about a two-pronged trade agreement to be multilateralised with the other two Andean nations.

Bolivia’s Rico, vice minister for International Economic Affairs, said the Andeans are interested in fulfilling their natural role of the pivot point between the north and south Latin America and the Caribbean, both for its geography and intermediate economies.

The Andean Community ministers aim to act as a solid group in relation to the FTAA from now on.

The Mercosur and Caricom have already presented some joint proposals, as have Canada and the United States.

However, Rojas said some fine details need to be sorted out before a collective employment and environment proposal can be agreed in relation to the FTAA, for though it is well underway it is unlikely to be finished by Belo Horizonte.

And Peru is also unlikely to have returned to the Andean fold before June 30, and although Peru’s Gustavo Caillaux said the country was definitely not interested in rejoining the group, the other ministers have refused to be totally pessimistic.

Peru announced it would be leaving the bloc on April 11, even if the decision was not totally official, for its partners refused to allow a seven year deferral of its participation in the free trade zone.

The nation had already been temporarily marginalised from the agreements in August 1992.

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