"CAN SHOULD BE PREPARED TO LOOK
FORWARD TO A COMMERCIAL AGREEMENT WITH EU": URIBE
Quito (Ecuador), 12 jul (SNE).- The Andean Community should look
forward to a definitive integration process with the European Union,
and that is why it can not be satisfied with the extension of the
General System of Preferences, GSP, next October, and should work
to get a commercial agreement.
Colombian President. Álvaro Uribe Vélez expressed
these words during the opening session of the XV Andean Presidential
Council, in Ecuador´s capital.
According to Uribe, the first objective in the Andean agenda should
be to get the extension of the GSP in flexible conditions and to
facilitate the access to the European market.
But it is necessary to make a step forward and fortify the Andean
Community of Nations because the European Union warns as an obstacle
the disorganization inside the Andean Community.
"Every time we meet the leaders of the European Union, their
objection is the disorganization of the Andean Community, that
the Andeans do not respect their own rules. This is the speech
from the EU to deny the agreement process with the Andean Community",
said Uribe Vélez.
If the Andean block is going to be stronger, new doors for the
integration process will be opened, Uribe added, because they are
necessary for the development and well being of the countries.
"As soon that happens and we have a stronger Andean Community,
with a unified leadership, we should start the negotiations of
the agreement with the European Union", said the Colombian
President.
If we get approved the GSP for 10 years, he added, we should use
it to achieve the negotiation with the European Union because it
is a short term and 10 years do not represent an important period
of time for investors to make big investments.
"We should demonstrate our capacity to negotiate with the
EU. Let the world know that once the ten years period of GSP ends,
a commercial agreement with the European Union will start",
said Uribe.
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