ISDS Case Map
CAN
Andean Community
The Andean Community of Nations (CAN) should come to terms first, before pursuing a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU), sources of the Spanish Foreign Ministry reported Thursday.
European Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner on Thursday ruled out the possibility of holding talks with the Andean Community over a free trade agreement.
Bolivia's President Evo Morales on Thursday urged Colombia, Peru and Ecuador to kill their free trade agreements with the United States, so as to keep the Andean Community alive. Meanwhile, Peru's President Alejandro Toledo said the Andean Community would now seek to launch trade talks with the EU, with or without Venezuela and Bolivia.
A deeply divided Latin America, in the midst of several growing conflicts, meets with the European Union 25 leaders in the framework of the two regions' fourth summit.
Free trade agreements with the United States and Venezuela's announced withdrawal from the Andean Community trade bloc will have an impact on workers, the ‘Cinderella' of decades of integration, said trade unionists and experts in the region consulted by IPS.
Before an audience of more than 25,000 gathered at Havana's Revolution Square, which coincided with the signing of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) agreement one year ago between Cuba and Venezuela, Bolivia officially joined the regional integration agreement through its Peoples Trade Agreement (TCP).
The European Community (EU) has announced that Venezuela's withdrawal from the Andean Community of Nations (CAN) will have a negative effect on planned free trade agreements.
Light Industry and Trade Minister María Cristina Iglesias reiterated the government's position that Colombia and Peru would have to abandon the bilateral trade deals they recently signed with the United States if Venezuela were to stay in the Andean Community of Nations.
The US free trade agreements "are destroying the CAN," Bolivian President Evo Morales said.
Venezuelan Minister for Integration and Foreign Trade Gustavo Márquez said on Monday that the countries which signed Free Trade Agreements with the US are responsible for the failure of the Andean Community of Nations (CAN).
