General Secretariat of Andean Communicty
Avenida Paseo de la República
3895
Lima
27
Perú
Telephone: +51 - 1 - 221-2222
Facsimile: +51 - 1 - 221-3329
E-mail: contacto@comunidadandina.org
Internet: www.comunidadandina.org
ESTABLISHMENT AND FUNCTIONS
The Andean Community is an economic and social integration organization with an international legal status. It comprises the following countries: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela, and the bodies and institutions of the Andean Integration System (SAI). Its early beginnings date back to 1969, when a group of South American countries signed the Cartagena Agreement, also known as the Andean Pact. The purpose of the Agreement is to promote the balanced and harmonious development of the Member Countries; accelerate the growth of the Andean countries and the creation of jobs; facilitate participation in the regional integration process with the aim of gradually creating a Latin American common market; help reduce the external vulnerability of the Member Countries and improve their position in the international economic context; strengthen subregional solidarity and reduce the differences in development that exist among the Member Countries; and define social policies oriented toward improving the quality of life of different subregional groups and improving their access to the benefits of development.
Over the next three decades, Andean integration passed through a series of different stages. A basically closed conception of inward-looking integration based on the import substitution model gradually gave way to a scheme of open regionalism. The direct intervention of the Presidents in the leadership of the process within the new model spurred integration and made it possible to attain the main objectives set by the Cartagena Agreement, such as the liberalization of trade in goods in the subregion, the adoption of a common external tariff, and the harmonization of foreign trade instruments and policies and economic policy, among others. The progress of integration and the emergence of new challenges stemming from global economic change brought to the fore the need for both institutional and policy reforms in the Cartagena Agreement. These were accomplished through the Protocols of Trujillo and Sucre, respectively. The institutional reforms gave the process political direction and created the Andean Community and the Andean Integration System. The policy reforms, for their part, extended the scope of integration beyond the purely trade and economic areas.
The Andean Community started operating on August 1, 1997 with a General Secretariat, with headquarters in Lima, Peru, as its executive body. The Council of Presidents and the Council of Foreign Ministers were formally established as new policy-making and leadership bodies. The legislative role of the Commission, comprised of the Trade Ministers, was broadened by including Ministers of other sectors. Today, the Andean Community groups together five countries with a population of over 105 million people, an area of 4.7 million square kilometers, and a gross domestic product of approximately US$254 billion. The Community is a subregion within South America with a unique profile and a common future.
COMPOSITION
5 member countries: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, VenezuelaSTRUCTURE
The Andean Integration System (SAI) is the structure that links up and makes it possible to coordinate the series of bodies, institutions, and agreements that comprise the Andean Community.