ISDS Case Map
CAN
Andean Community
A council of Andean foreign ministers yesterday approved Chile's re-entry to the Andean Community of Nations trade group after a three-decade absence.
In the last few months, Chile has made it clear that it intends to become a trade platform between the vast Asia Pacific region and the Andean countries, by means of trade treaties and political integration. Prompt re-entry into the Andean Community of Nations (CAN) would be a step in that direction.
Chile formally requested incorporation to the Andean Community of Nations, CAN, in a letter sent by President Michelle Bachelet to her counterparts from Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru, reported Foreign Affairs minister Alejandro Foxley.
The US government's announcement that it will review the possibility of limiting, suspending, or withdrawing trade preferences under the General System of Preferences (GSP) to three Latin American countries--Argentina, Brazil, and Venezuela--is political pressure to make these nations participate in the model of regional integration proposed by the United States.
Is South American integration doomed, as much of the press reports? Or is there steady progress towards wider and deeper union, as the agenda of the Mercosur summit in Cordoba, Argentina, on 20-21 July, suggests?
If the CAN countries work out their differences, including establishment of a common tariff, EU-CAN talks could get under way in January 2007, and the association agreement, which includes political, economic, and trade chapters, would come online in May 2008.
The foreign ministers of the Andean Community of Nations (CAN) forged ahead in attempts to quiet fears of an imminent collapse of the bloc following Venezuela's withdrawal, despite member-country political differences that were all too evident at the regional summit.
Andean leaders have agreed a new course for their trade bloc without Venezuela. They plan to urge Washington to extend expiring trade benefits designed to help counter cocaine production in the South American region.
Peru's President Alejandro Toledo wants the Andean Community of Nations (CAN) summit set for next Tuesday to push forward negotiations on a trade pact with the European Union, the CAN announced on Wednesday.
The European Union and six Central American leaders said Saturday they hoped to launch free trade talks before the end of the year.
