MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Pro business Peru, Colombia, Chile and Mexico to sign Pacific Agreement

Peruvian president Alan Garcia will be hosting the meeting

Peruvian president Alan Garcia will be hosting this week his peers from Colombia, Chile and Mexico to subscribe the so-called Pacific (Ocean) Agreement with the purpose of integrating the four countries economies.

Colombia’s Juan Manuel Gomez, Chile’s Sebastian Piñera and Mexico’s Felipe Calderón together with Garcia will be attending the signing ceremony next Thursday 28 April in Lima’s presidential palace.

The agreement will help establish a framework of conditions to facilitate the circulation of goods, capital and services on the four countries from the Pacific basin.

According to Chilean diplomatic sources Piñera will only remain in Lima for a couple of hours (political relations between the neighbouring countries are not at their best), but Mexico’s Calderón will be arriving for a official visit together with a trade delegation and several cabinet ministers.

“This is a clear and definitive victory for an open and modern democratic model”, said President Garcia who added that the agreement means the four countries will work together ‘outwards’ in a world that demands strong blocks and where only those countries that “unite can be protagonist and play a first line role”.

“It will mean deep integration for the four countries so that we can grow and expand towards Asia and the rest of the world”, said the Peruvian president.

Foreign Affairs minister Jose Garcia Belaunde earlier in the week anticipated that the agreement must be seen as an integration process open to all “those who wish to join”, not limited to a ‘neighbourly condition, but also involving the exchange of goods, services, capital and integrating peoples”.