Apartado 17035
Caracas 1010-4
Venezuela
Telephone:+58 -2 - 202 - 5111
Facsimile: +58 - 2 - 238 - 8923
E-Mail: difusion@sela.org
Internet: www.sela.org
The Latin American Economic System (SELA) is the only organization exclusively grouping Latin American and Caribbean countries. SELA totals 28 States as its members. The organization’s objectives include the promotion of regional coordination, with third countries or at international fora, on economic issues of common interest; the propelling of cooperation among Member States in support of economic and social development; and support for the articulation and convergence of the various integration schemes in existence throughout the region.
In its 23 years of existence, SELA has always acted on the basis of the interests and priorities of Latin American and Caribbean regions. When SELA’s maximum political decision-making authority met in Havana, Cuba, on the occasion of its XXIV Regular Meeting, held from November 30 to December 3, 1998, the Council approved a restructuring process aimed at adapting its objectives and functions to the changing realities of the international environment and at establishing priorities on the basis of the needs of its Member States. As a result, the immediate objectives established in this respect were: to contribute to inserting the Member States of SELA into the world economy’s globalization process; to assist in upgrading inter-relations between the various subregions of Latin America and the Caribbean; and to promote and facilitate regional cooperation via activities whose results underscore the organization’s specificity, its contributions to the region’s identity and unity, and a differentiated contribution, pursuant to its Latin American and Caribbean approach.
SELA's new work program will focus on three broad thematic areas, namely:
1. Extra-Regional Relations
Study of Latin American and Caribbean insertion in the world economy’s globalization process and long-term development scenarios;
Follow-up of extra-regional economic relations; fundamentally the evolution of negotiations for the FTAA and relations between the United States and Latin America and the Caribbean; the implications of the EU/LA Summit on the region and the progress made in the EU’s expansion process; and relations between Latin America/Caribbean and the Asia-Pacific;
Analysis of specific issues on the international economic agenda, such as negotiations on agriculture and trade in services currently under way in the WTO, and development financing and external debt of the region.
2. Intra-Regional Relations
Exchange of experiences relating to the evolution of integration processes and agreements among the countries of the region, including the issue of intra-regional investments and the study of specific issues concerning articulation and convergence of regional processes;
Fostering of dialogue and dissemination of information on national experiences relating to economic and social policies of significance for the region.
3. Regional Cooperation
Promotion and facilitation of activities for Technical Cooperation Among Developing Countries (TCDC) and training of human resources relating to international and regional trade negotiations, especially those involving government officials in charge of the WTO and FTAA negotiations and, in the case of the CARIFORUM countries, of the preparation of post-Lomé negotiations;
Joint execution of programs with the International Cooperation Agency of Spain (AECI) in favor of the countries of the Caribbean, and support to the Rio Group and the 1999 Iberian-American Summit;
SELA, in quality of TCDC focal point, will handle the organization of the XV Meeting of Directors of International Technical Cooperation of Latin America and the Caribbean;
Coordination of actions in support of countries affected by natural disasters.
28 member countries: Argentina, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela
SELA's structure consists of the Latin American Council, the Action Committees and the Permanent Secretariat. The Latin American Council, which includes one representative from each Member State, is the highest organ and meets annually in regular session at the ministerial level to establish the general policies of the organization. Action Committees are flexible cooperative mechanisms which are established in the interest of three or more countries in promoting joint programs and projects in specific areas. These committees are dissolved upon attainment of their objectives or may become Permanent Bodies. The Permanent Secretariat is SELA's administrative organ and is headed by a Permanent Secretary, who is elected to a four-year term by the Latin American Council.
Capitulos del SELA (pubished three times a year in English and Spanish); Strategic Issues (suspended); Meeting Documents (annual); Economic Relations Study (series); What is SELA? (booklet); SELA Antenna in the United States (quarterly); Integration Bulletin (monthly)