Peruvian President Alan Garcia proposes a system of deep integration between Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, and Chile, with the free movement of goods, capital and people, reports El Espectador.
Garcia, who is currently in Panama signing an agricultural agreement, said that it would be “the most audacious act” that could be made in the continent in these times.
The Peruvian president said that he had written to the leaders of Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, and Panama stating his desire to see the countries along the Latin American Pacific coast work towards a closer relationship with “the other side of the Pacific through these new universal systems, such as APEC [Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation].”
Garcia said that the Andean Community of Nations, a trade bloc comprising Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, had failed to achieve all its goals during its 41-year history.
Other forms of integration between South American nations, Garcia said, were “doomed to permanent dispute between the countries.”
However, the Peruvian leader says that the five states involved in the proposal believe in “integration without limits.”
“If we share this way of thinking, the question is what are we waiting for in systematizing and deeply integrating into the inevitable reality of an international economy that is expanding by leaps and bounds?” asked Garcia.