Special Report:Global Financial Crisis
QUITO, Nov. 10 (Chinese media) -- The Andean Community of Nations (CAN) has
decided to suspend negotiations on a trade agreement with the European Union
(EU), said reports reaching here from Brussels on Monday.
CAN requested to postpone talks with the EU scheduled for Tuesday in
Brussels as its members need more time to achieve consensus over the trade deal
and reach a common negotiating position, according to reports from the
Ecuadorian embassy in Brussels.
However, foreign ministers of Colombia and Peru Jaime Bermudez and Jose
Garcia Belaunde will meet with EU External Relations Commissioner Benita
Ferrero-Waldner respectively on Tuesday.
The two foreign ministers will also meet with representatives from the
European Commission (EC), the executive body of the EU.
Talks over a trade pact between CAN and the EU stalled in June after the EU
agreed to negotiate the accord separately with Colombia and Peru.
Peru and Colombia want bilateral negotiations with the EU, but Bolivia and
Ecuador maintain that member countries have to forge a common front in this
regard and negotiate with the EU in a single voice.
In mid-October, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa said at a CAN meeting
held in Ecuador that CAN, which groups Peru, Colombia, Bolivia and Ecuador, is
definitely able to move forward in its negotiations with the EU "bloc to bloc,"
but it must adjust to the "different speed" of each member country.
Foreign ministers of the CAN member states will meet on Nov. 13in Lima so
as to remove some of the obstacles to a final agreement, said the reports.
Exports from the Andean bloc to the EU totaled 11 billion U.S. dollars in
2007, mostly raw materials and farm products such as bananas, while EU's exports
to the bloc exceeded 8 billion dollars, according to CAN data.
No comments:
Post a Comment