Andean Bloc Offers New Trade Deal to the US

Four presidents of the Andean Bloc took part in an important economic summit on Tuesday in Quito, Ecuador and decided they should establish a new and positive course regarding economic ties with the United States, especially as far as trade agreements are concerned.


Evo Morales from Bolivia, Alejandro Toledo from Peru, Alfredo Palacio from Ecuador and Alvaro Uribe from Colombia signed an economic pact yesterday, that advocates for the respect of the rights of all nations in the Andean bloc to establish free trade agreements with the United States. Moreover, the pact stipulates the desire of countries in the Andean bloc for the US's extension of trade preferences, initially established in 1991, so that these Latin American countries are enabled to move away from the cocoa leaf production, the main element of cocaine, and focus on different products but also in reward to their struggle to eradicate such crops.

This decision comes as a political necessity to persuade Washington to extend the term of the agreements regarding these trade prefferences' benefits, that incorporate many products and are due to end this December, even though the latter had initially stated they would not. Alvaro Uribe was nominated to be the "spokesperson" of this cause in Washington, on Wednesday.

The economic accord came as a huge surprise to Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez, one of the most avid critics of the United States, who was not invited at the summit and who stated his country was "fatally wounded" when Colombia, Peru and Bolivia signed this pact.

Michael Shifter, a business analyst at the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, commented on Bolivia "revoking" its initial agreement with Venezuela, by agreeing on the new economic course. He declared that Evo Morales "cannot afford" to adopt the same critical position as Venezuela does, against the US: "Chavez, after all, benefits enormously from the U.S. market, the recipient of an estimated 60 percent of its petroleum exports. It makes sense that Morales would also try to see how Bolivia can take better advantage of the U.S. market."