Membership
The original Andean Pact was founded in 1969 by Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. In 1973, the pact gained its sixth member, Venezuela. In 1976, however, its membership was again reduced to five when Chile withdrew. Venezuela announced its withdrawal in 2006, reducing the Andean Community to four member states.
Recently, with the new cooperation agreement with Mercosur, the Andean Community gained four new associate members: Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. These four Mercosur members were granted associate membership by the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers meeting in an enlarged session with the Commission (of the Andean Community) on July 7, 2005. This moves reciprocates the actions of Mercosur which granted associate membership to all the Andean Community nations by virtue of the Economic Complementarity Agreements (Free Trade agreements) signed between the CAN and individual Mercosur members.
- Current members:
- Bolivia (1969)
- Colombia (1969)
- Ecuador (1969)
- Peru (1969)
- Associate members:
- Argentina (2005)
- Brazil (2005)
- Paraguay (2005)
- Uruguay (2005)
- Chile (2006)
- Observer countries:
- Mexico
- Panama
- Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
- Spain
- Former full members:
- Venezuela (1973–2006), joined Mercosur
- Chile (full member 1969-1976, observer 1976-2006, associate member since 2006)
Read more about this topic: Andean Community Of Nations
Famous quotes containing the word membership:
“The two real political parties in America are the Winners and the Losers. The people don’t acknowledge this. They claim membership in two imaginary parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, instead.”
—Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (b. 1922)