The Andean common agricultural policy aim is to promote an efficient and modern agriculture in order to attract and take advantage of the investment resources and the human labor force, so as to have the opportunity to export appropriately, and give the Andean inhabitants a high standard of living.

The Andean common agricultural policy was established through Presidential Mandate, and has the following aims:

• Elimination of all taxes and restraints which adversely affects the intra-subregional trade.

• Harmonization of the sector policy instruments.

• An agricultural development program which establishes the policy harmonization, the adoption of common standards and programs on animal and vegetable health, the performance of combined programs and actions related with the agricultural and agribusiness trade with third countries.

• To adjust the competitivity conditions of the agricultural markets, avoiding the subregion distortions.

• Formulate a common program in order to improve the productive sectors' productivity so as to take advantage of the subregional market and access third markets.

The defintion and harmonization of policies will be carried out by the Ministers of Agriculture along with a commission compound by the Minister of Foreign Trade of the Cartagena Agreement.

Several instruments which attend basically the trade policy are in force, resulting from the Andean Common Agricultural Policy lineaments and definitions:

• The agricultural safeguard applicable among the member countries for a set of products (Articule 102 of the Cartagena Agreement).

• The Agricultural Health Andean System (Decision 328) which establishes criteria and procedures in order to facilitate trade.

• The Price Band Andean System (Decisión 371) in order to stabilize the imports cost of a set of agricultural products when trading with third countries.

• The automatic corrective rights (Decision 371), applied among the member countries for tariff differences before third countries.

• The obligation to monetize the food donations.

• The following-up system on the agricultural sector policy by the member countries through the Agricultural Sector Support Indicators (ASSI) and other instruments that allow placing the competition conditions differences over which harmonization proposals could be set forth.

• The agricultural subregional market strengthening shall be established in the policies coordination and  harmonization among the member countries, using a direct dialog, transparence and accomplishing with the common standards, before adopting methods that interrupt the subregion relation.

• Improve and harmonize the subregional policy instruments which involve all the member countries, resulting in a betterment of the Andean Customs Union.

• Identify present competitivity levels within the subregional productive business systems as well as the enlarged market improvement, in order to determine development programs.

• Harmonize the policy instruments that have a strong effect on the internal prices maintenance.

• Identify the mechanisms in order to accelerate the incorporation of the Peruvian agricultural sector to the free trade area.

• Improve the PBAS, revising its application environment and assessing the aforementioned instruments, which can be necessary in order to complete the system.

• Harmonize the subregional countries' commitments before the multilateral organizations.

• Develop actions in order to fulfill a higher link among the agribusiness systems.

• Fit the safeguard and improve the Andean legislation compensatory measures.

• Fit the Common External Tariff levels and staggering.

• Harmonize the vegetable and animal health legislation of the member countries in order to adopt a common sanitary standard.

• Establish clear trade negotiation strategies with third countries and put them in practice:

  Eliminating or reducing the tariff differences that the member countries have whith third countries.

  Obtaining the subregional preference margin during the necessary time in order to reach the productivity levels required by each productive system

  Reach the dismantling of the agricultural subsidies as well as the technical demands in the developed countries, which adversely affect the subregional production.

  Design and develop a program for the Andean agricultural and agribusiness products exports.

  Develop common actions at a high level in order to diseminate the preferences systems granted by the developed countries to the agricultural commodities.

• Identify financial cooperation sources in order to get resources and develop common programs.

• Develop the competitivity surveys per business system.

• Develop the generation and technoloty transfer programs.

• Support the training area for the small agrarian producers and employers participation and analysis hability within the Customs Union strengthening as well as the common relationships with third countries on agricultural matters:

Fulfilled tasks

The following tasks have been fulfilled, among others:

• A survey on rice competitivity has begun, and the Andean Rice Committee has been established.

• The Common External Tariff have had a first result through Decision 466, in which the periods for dismantling Annex 4 have been established, that includes the exception list for Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador.

• The best model of clear negotiation strategies with thirds is the Preferences Agreement signed with Brazil, for a two-years-period, in which the Andean Price Band does not remains the same.

• Within the safeguard matter, articles 102 and 103 are been rulered, and the standards for the adoption of safeguar measures for imports originating from non member countries of the Andean Community have been established through Decision 452.

• The Andean Community will define a jointly strategy for next negotiations in the WTO upon the Decision 454, in which the lineaments for the multilateral negotiation on agriculture and the binding rights and tariff quotas harmonization have been established.

• Through Decision 454, the procedures for applying tariff preferences to those products included in the PBAS was established, ir order to improve the system.

• The Andean Community has began talks with the European Union, Panama, Central America, and other countries.
  

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