Chapter XIV. Economic and Social Cooperation
Article 139-.
Member Countries may begin programs and policies in the area of economic and social cooperation, which must be agreed upon within the Commission and shall be limited to the responsibilities established by this Agreement.
Article 140-.
Member Countries shall begin policies with an external scope, in matters of common interest, with the purpose of improving their participation in the international economy.
Article 141-.
With respect to the provisions of the previous Article, the Commission shall adopt programs to direct the joint external actions of the Member Countries, particularly as regards to the negotiations with third countries and group of countries, as well as for the participation in fora and organizations specialized in matters related to the international economy.
Article 142-.
Member Countries shall promote a joint scientific and technological development process to attain the following objectives:
a. The creation of the ability to respond subregionally to the challenges of the scientific-technological revolution in course;
b. The contribution of science and technology to the conception and execution of Andean development strategies and programs; and
c. Taking advantage of the mechanisms of economic integration in order to induce technological innovation and productive modernization.
Article 143-.
With respect to the previous Article, the Member Countries shall adopt in the fields where there is a common interest: a. Programs of cooperation and joint efforts in science and technology in which the subregional level is more effective to train human resources and to obtain the results of the investigation;
b. Technological development programs that contribute to the attainment of solutions to the common problems of the productive sectors; and
c. Programs for taking advantage of the enlarged market and of joint physical, human, and financial abilities, in order to induce technological development in sectors of common interest.
Article 144-.
Member Countries shall undertake policies that promote the integral development of border regions and their effective incorporation to the domestic and Andean subregional economies.
Article 145-.
In the area of tourism, the Member Countries shall develop joint programs seeking a better understanding of the Subregion and to stimulate economic activities related to this sector.
Article 146-.
Member Countries shall undertake joint policies that enable a better use of their renewable and nonrenewable natural resources and the preservation and improvement of the environment.
Article 147-.
Member countries shall undertake cooperation actions in the services sector. For that purpose the Commission shall adopt programs and projects in selected areas of the services sector, defining for each case the mechanisms and instruments to be applied.
Article 148-.
Member Countries shall undertake joint cooperation actions destined to contribute to the attainment of the following objectives of social development of the Andean population:
a. The elimination of poverty among the excluded classes, in order to achieve social justice;
b. To strengthen the cultural identity of the Andean area;
c. Full participation of the inhabitants of the Subregion in the integration process; and
d. To meet the needs of the depressed areas, that are predominantly rural. For the attainment of such objectives, programs and projects shall be developed in the areas of health, social security, social interest housing, education, and culture. The fulfillment of the actions to be developed within the framework of this Article shall be coordinated with the different organizations of the Andean system.
Article 149-.
Member Countries shall undertake policies in the area of social communication and policies oriented to promote a better understanding of the cultural, historical, and geographic heritage of the Subregion, its economic and social reality, and that of the Andean integration process.
Article 150-.
The projects, policies, and programs to which this Chapter refers to shall be developed, in parallel and in coordination, with the improvement of the other mechanisms of the subregional integration process.
Chapter XV. Accession, Effective Date and Denouncement
Article 151-.
This Agreement may not be signed with reservations and shall remain open to the accession of the rest of the Latin American countries. Least developed countries which accede to the Agreement shall be entitled to a treatment similar to that agreed upon in Chapter XIII for Bolivia and Ecuador. The terms of the accession shall be defined by the Commission, which shall bear in mind that the incorporation of new members shall comply with the objectives of the Agreement.
Article 152-.
This Agreement shall be submitted to the Permanent Executive Committee of the LAFTA for its considerations and once the Committee has declared its compatibility with the principals and objectives of the Treaty of Montevideo and with Resolution 203 (CM-II/VI-E), each of the Member Countries shall approve it in keeping with its respective national legal procedures and shall inform the Executive Secretariat of LAFTA of the corresponding act of approval. The Agreement shall become effective when three countries have communicated their approval to the Executive Secretariat of LAFTA. For the rest of the countries the date of the Agreement’s entry into force shall be that in which they communicate the respective instrument of approval in accordance with the procedure set forth in the first subsection of this Article. This Agreement shall remain in effect indefinitely.
Article 153-.
Any Member Country wishing to denounce this Treaty shall so inform the Commission. From that moment on it shall cease to enjoy the rights and have the obligations deriving from its status as Member, with the exception of the benefits received and granted in accordance with the Subregional Tariff Reduction Program, which will remain effective for a period of five years after the date of the denouncement. The time period stipulated in the paragraph above may be shortened in duly grounded cases by decision of the Commission and at the request of the interested Member Country. As regards the Programs of Industrial Integration, the stipulation of paragraph i) of Article 59 shall be applied.
Chapter XVI. Final Dispositions
Article 154-.
The Commission, at the proposal of the General Secretariat, and based upon the latter´s periodic reports and evaluations, shall adopt the necessary mechanisms to ensure the attainment of the objectives of the Agreement once the process of liberalization of trade and the establishment of the Common External Tariff have concluded. Such mechanisms must include special treatment in favor of Bolivia and Ecuador so long as existing differences in the degree of development continue to exist.
Article 155-.
Any advantage, favor, exemption, immunity, or privilege applied by a Member Country regarding a product originating in or destined for any other country, shall be immediately and unconditionally extended to the similar product originating in or destined for the territory of the other Member Countries. Advantages, favors, exemptions, immunities, and privileges already granted or to be granted by virtue of agreements among Member Countries or between Member Countries and third countries, with the purpose of facilitating border traffic shall be excepted from the treatment referred to in the previous subsection. Likewise, the advantages, favors, exemptions, immunities, and privileges granted by Bolivia or Ecuador to third countries are excepted from the referred treatment until the Commission adopts the corresponding Decision based on the evaluation of the Tariff Reduction Program foreseen in paragraph d) of Article 130.
Chapter XVII. Transitory Provisions
The Commission, at the proposal of the General Secretariat, shall review the Sectorial Programs of Industrial Development that are approved and related to the products of the metallurgical, petrochemicals, and iron and steel industries, the products included in the lists of Decision 28 and the others related to it and those included in Annexes III and IV of Decision 137, in light of the provisions of Articles 59 and 60, and may redefine sectorial or inter-sectorially the Tariff Reduction Program and the Common External Tariff originally agreed for the products which are the subject of said Programs, bearing in mind the need to preserve the investments and trade flows that have been generated.
The General Secretariat, in its Proposal, shall bear in mind the particular situation of Bolivia and Ecuador with the purpose of ensuring for them an equitable participation in the benefits derived from the Program or Programs that may be adopted by the Commission based on this Provision.
The Commission, at the proposal of the General Secretariat, shall approve the creation of a new list of reserve to apply the modes of industrial integration referred to in Article 77, beginning with the products that having been reserved for the Sectorial Programs of Industrial Development, were not programmed; the products which are not produced in any country of the Subregion, and those produced only in one of them. For such purpose it shall determine a redefinition of the Tariff Reduction Program and of the Minimum Common External Tariff or the Common External Tariff, as the case may be, corresponding to the products that shall make up the above mentioned list of reserve.
With the purpose of regulating the conditions of access to the subregional market of specific products comprised in paragraph d) of Article 75 of this Agreement, affected by special situations, a transitory trade administration regime shall be established through the application of import quotas. For these purposes, the Member Countries may present the General Secretariat with a list of products which are the subject of administered trade.
2. Such lists of administered trade shall be subject to the following common rules:
a. Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela may present their respective lists on June 24, 1988 at the latest, and Bolivia and Ecuador on July 9, 1988 at the latest. If after such time a country does not present its list, it will be understood that it gives up the right foreseen in this Provision. Once the lists are presented, they may not be increased, nor may their products be substituted by others;
b. The lists of administered trade shall be in force until December 31, 1997. Products included in such lists shall be totally freed from the quotas through a gradual process of enlargement of the same or by the withdrawal of items in the list. Global and individual product quotas shall be increased in three opportunities at least, the first and second of 30 percent each, and the third one of 40 percent of the average value of the imports of the 1980-1985 period, that shall take place in order, on December 31, 1992, 1995, and 1997, date in which they shall be eliminated; and
c. The Member Countries shall hold periodic negotiations with the purpose of establishing the import quotas, for which they may use as a basis the most appropriate reference period of their reciprocal trade, the enlargement of quotas, and the withdrawal of products from the lists.
3.The lists of administered trade of Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela shall be subject to the following special rules:
a. They may comprise products included in no more than fifty items of the NABANDINA;
b. The annual, global, and specific product quotas, applied by each country may not be lower than thirty percent of the annual average value of the corresponding imports originating in the Member Countries and recorded in the 1980-1985 period;
c. The quantities of imports below the quotas referred to in the previous paragraph, shall be totally free of levies and no restriction different to that required to administer the quota may be applied to them.
d. After negotiation, the annual quotas of each one of the products may be applied by a Member Country in a directed way at the imports of another Member Country; and
e. As long as a product is included in an administered trade list, it may not enjoy the advantages derived for it from the Tariff Reduction Program. At any time, a Member Country may remove products from its list and immediately enjoy the respective advantages.
4. The administered trade lists of Bolivia and Ecuador, directed at Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela, shall be subject to the following special rules:
a. Bolivia and Ecuador shall determine the annual quotas applicable to each one of the products of their respective lists, which must be balanced in relation to those established for their products of export; and
b. Imports carried out within the quotas referred to in the previous paragraph, shall be subject to the corresponding levies depending on their Tariff Reduction Program and no restriction different to that required to administer the quota may be applied to them. The changes in levels that result from the conversion that Ecuador carries out in its National Custom Tariff as a consequence of the adoption of the Brussels Tariff Nomenclature, shall be excepted from what has been foreseen in Article 84. The Commission may place the products of Decision 120, once it is derogated, in any of the categories of the Tariff Reduction Program; likewise, it may include them in the new list of reserve which the Second Transitory Provision refers to.
The changes in levels that result from the conversion that Ecuador carries out in its National Custom Tariff as a consequence of the adoption of the Brussels Tariff Nomenclature, shall be excepted from what has been foreseen in Article 84. The Commission may place the products of Decision 120, once it is derogated, in any of the categories of the Tariff Reduction Program; likewise, it may include them in the new list of reserve which the Second Transitory Provision refers to.
Annex I.
To delegate in the General Secretariat the attributions which it deems advisable.
To approve proposals that modify this Agreement.
To amend the proposals of the General Secretariat.
To approve the rules needed to make the coordination of the development plans and the harmonization of economic policies of the Member Countries possible.
To approve the rules and define the time limits for the gradual harmonization of the Member Countries´ instruments of foreign trade regulation.
To approve the programs of physical integration.
To accelerate the Tariff Reduction Program, by products or group of products.
To approve the joint agricultural and agroindustrial development programs by products or group of products.
To approve and modify the list of agricultural products which Article 104 refers to. To approve the measures of joint cooperation established in Article 108.
To approve, not to approve, or amend the proposals of the Member Countries.
To reduce the number of matters included in this Annex.
To establish the condition for accession to this Agreement.
To approve the extension of the time limits referred to paragraph 1) of Article 7 of this Agreement.
To approve the Common External Tariff according to the categories foreseen in Chapter VI, to establish the conditions of its application and to modify the common tariff levels.
To approve the measures referred to in the last subsection of Article 103.
To approve the margins of preference referred to in Article 95.
Annex II.
To approve the conditions of incorporation for a nonparticipant Member Country in the Industrial Integration Programs.
To approve the list of products reserved for industrial integration modes.
To approve the Minimum Common External Tariff.
To approve the list of products which are not produced in any of the countries of the Subregion.
To approve the special rules of origin.
Annex III.
To approve the list of products for immediate liberalization according to Article 127, paragraph b).
To fix margins of preference and to indicate the effective period for the lists of products of special interest to Bolivia and Ecuador (Article 127, paragraphs d) and e)).
To determine the way and time limits in which Bolivia and Ecuador shall liberalize the products referred to in Article 83 (Article 130, paragraph b).
To review the time limits for the liberalization of the products referred to in paragraphs b) and d) of Article 130.
To determine the minimum tariff levels adopted by Bolivia and Ecuador for products of interest to the other Member Countries (Article 134).
To approve the list of products which are not produced, reserved for production in Bolivia and Ecuador, and to fix the conditions and time limit of the reserve (Article 80).
Done at the city of Trujillo, on the tenth day of the month of March of the year nineteen ninety-six, in five originals, all of them equally valid. Matching table between the Official Codified Text of the Cartagena Agreement after the Protocol of Quito (Decision 236) and that resulting from the Protocol of Trujillo (Decision 406).