COLOMBIA: ANDREAN TRACE PACT SUMMIT CLOSES WITH SOUTH AMERICAN PRESIDEBNT PRESSING FOR FREE TRADE ZONE

Record ID: 646036

  • Title: COLOMBIA: ANDREAN TRACE PACT SUMMIT CLOSES WITH SOUTH AMERICAN PRESIDEBNT PRESSING FOR FREE TRADE ZONE
  • Date: 27th June 2003
  • Summary: (W8) RIONEGRO, COLOMBIA (JUNE 28, 2003) (REUTERS) WIDE OF FLAGS FROM ANDEAN COUNTRIES OUTSIDE VENUE WIDE OF PRESIDENTS ATTENDING NEWS CONFERENCE SLV MEDIA SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) ECUADOREAN PRESIDENT, LUCIO GUTIERREZ, SAYING: "The Rio Group meeting showed the willingness to find a peaceful solution to the conflict in our sister Republic of Colombia because it is not only Colombia's problem, it is the problem of the entire region. This is not because it affects some countries more than others but because human lives are at risk and are dying unnecessarily when there are other more affective ways to find solutions to differences through dialogue." WIDE OF PRESS CONFERENCE SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT HUGO CHAVEZ SAYING: "The answer to where we are going has been very difficult because Latin America was being put down the path of neo-liberalism and our criteria is not that path, the path to hell." WIDE OF MEDIA SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) URIBE SAYING: "Let us advance to the macroeconomic framework in all that we can, an aggressive path to recognise that there are many norms violated in the Andean community and to reach more credibility and confidence those violations need to be overcome." GV HELICOPTER FLYING OVERHEAD VARIOUS, PRESIDENTS WAVING AT END OF PRESS CONFERENCE (2 SHOTS) Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 12th July 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: RIONEGRO, COLOMBIA
  • Country: Colombia
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAA19IE1SRGIYH9LXQWQS1JLY87
  • Story Text: The Andean Trade Pact Summit has come to a close in Colombia with heads of state from across South America pushing for a free trade zone that would span the Americas.
    Leaders from Andean nations and Brazil met on Friday (June 27) and Saturday (June 28) and promised to deepen commerce in the region and create a South American block ahead of a free trade zone that would span the Americas by 2005.
    Such a block would allow Latin America to have a stronger bargaining position with the United States to create the Free Trade Area of the Americas, or FTAA, despite deep differences and festering tariff disputes between them, officials said.
    Brazil and the United States co-chair the FTAA.
    The two-day meeting of the Andean Nation Community in the Colombian town of Rionegro ushered in Brazil -- the largest economy in Latin America -- as special guest, with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva calling for stronger integration to strengthen trade negotiations with the United States.
    "It is not about a South America with the particular vision of each of our countries. We want a South America by all and for all South Americans. My dear presidents, Brazil sees an integration between Mercosur and the Andean community as a tool to reach a relationship that reflects the strength of both blocks," Lula, a former union leader, said upon arriving late on Friday in this mountain town.
    Created in 1969, the Andean Nation Community -- which groups Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Peru -- agreed to come up with a work plan to strike a trade deal with Mercosur, a trade block that includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay by year's end.
    Once a fiery leftist orator who decried against the "annexation" of Brazil, Lula met U.S. President George W. Bush on June 20 and sounded an optimistic note on FTAA.
    In addition to commercial and economic issues the presidents promised to push concrete planes to fight against poverty, drug trafficking, terrorism and corruption among other regional themes.
    "Let us advance to the macroeconomic framework in all that we can, an aggressive path to recognise that there are many norms violated in the Andean community and to reach more credibility and confidence those violations need to be overcome," said Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.
    This, the first summit of its kind in Colombia since Alvaro Uribe assumed the presidency in 2002, took place in the southern province of Antioquia, Uribe's birthplace and a heavily embattled area with a strong guerrilla presence.
    "The Rio Group meeting showed the willingness to find a peaceful solution to the conflict in our sister Republic of Colombia because it is not only Colombia's problem, it is the problem of the entire region. This is not because it affects some countries more than others but because human lives are at risk and are dying unnecessarily when there are other more affective ways to find solutions to differences through dialogue," said Ecuadorean President Lucio Gutierrez.
    Tens of thousands have died in Colombia's four-decade-old war against paramilitary forces and guerrillas.
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