ISDS Case Map
CAN
Andean Community
Presidents of Andean Community, or CAN, member countries met in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on Oct. 14 as part of an urgent effort to rescue derailed group talks for a trade agreement with the European Union. Talks stalled in June for the trade pact after the European Union agreed to negotiate the accord separately with Colombia and Peru, as both countries are governed by pro-free trade presidents, unlike the presidents of fellow CAN countries Ecuador and Bolivia.
In this article we provide an overview of the milestones in this negotiation and reveal its true nature: that of a new Neo-liberal colonialist imposition disguised as an “association”.
Both Peru and Colombia want to work quickly to conclude bilateral trade deals with the EU, as negotiations toward a regional-level pact have largely stalled.
In perfect coordination, worthy of the political affinity between Alvaro Uribe and Alan García, the two presidents sent identical letters on 9 September 2008 to the President of the European Commission, in which, unilaterally and without consulting their partners in the Andean Community of Nations (CAN), they terminated the Association Agreement negotiations between the CAN and the EU. What they seek is quite serious: to force bilateral negotiations with the European Union, excluding both Bolivia and Ecuador.
Peru's president, Alan García, confirmed today Peruvian interest to sign trade agreement with the European Union (EU); however, he recognized the initial obstacles for consensus in the Andean Community of Nations (CAN).
Ecuador would agree with Peru and Colombia to negotiate a bilateral Association Agreement between the Andean Community (CAN) and the European Union (EU), stated Thursday Peru's minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism, Mercedes Aráoz.
The President of Bolivia, Evo Morales, accused the US of extending its Free Trade Agreements program to divide Latin American countries.
The EU is currently negotiating FTAs with Central America, the Andean Community of Nations and Mercosur. Its objective is to use these agreements to complete the privatisation process, to remove restrictions on European property and activity in the region, to acquire full access to natural resources and to obtain guarantees that European companies will be able to operate with clear advantages over national companies. Moreover, all these concessions granted to European companies are to be protected from any political changes that the peoples of the region might want to undertake in the future.
In the early hours of Thursday, representatives of the governments of Colombia, Ecuador and Peru agreed to let Peru legislate intellectual property on its own to accommodate its Free Trade Agreement with United States, on the margins of Decision 486 of the Andean Community of Nations (CAN). Bolivia voted against this move in order to preserve the principles and foundations of the CAN.
Peru's minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism, Mercedes Aráoz, announced on Thursday that the Andean Community of Nations (CAN) approved to modify the norm regarding intellectual property, which will allow Peru to implement the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States.
