THE ANDEAN COMMUNITY COMMISSION,

HAVING SEEN:

Article 98 of the Cartagena Agreement and Decision 370;

WHEREAS:

Decision 370, in the fifth paragraph of article 9, establishes that Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela agree to reduce the list of exceptions corresponding to Annex 4 by 50 subitems a year, by transferring them to Annex 1 and, in the case of Ecuador, also to Annex 2, for a period of three years, and to eliminate the residual group in the fourth year.

Last January 31, 1999, the period for the definitive dismantling of Annex 4 of Decision 370 expired;

Nonetheless, as the delegations of Ecuador and Colombia have stated, it is necessary to extend the period established in Decision 370 for the definitive dismantling of the list of exceptions to the Common External Tariff;

During the Seventy-fourth Regular Session of the Commission, held in Caracas on March 4, 1999, the Alternate Representatives instructed the Tariff Coordination Council to study the question so that it might draw up a proposal for the definitive dismantling of Annex 4;

The Tariff Coordination Council met on May 17 and 18, 1999 to study the situation and propose the terms and conditions under which the list of exceptions to the Common External Tariff would be definitively dismantled;

DECIDES:

Article 1.- By July 31, 1999 at the latest, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela shall withdraw from their lists of exceptions to the Common External Tariff, a number of NANDINA subitems equivalent to 20% of the subitems currently on those lists, by transferring them to Annex 1 to Decision 370, or, in the case of Ecuador, to Annex 2 to Decision 370.

Article 2.- By January 31, 2000 at the latest, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela shall withdraw from their lists of exceptions to the Common External Tariff an additional number of NANDINA subitems equivalent to 40% of the sutbitems currently on those lists, by transferring them to Annex 1 to Decision 370, or, in the case of Ecuador, to Annex 2 to Decision 370.

In the case of the group of residual subitems that are not withdrawn by January 31, 2000 and that show a difference of more than 10 percentage points between the national tariff and the Common External Tariff, that difference must be reduced to 5 points.

Article 3.- By July 31, 2000 at the latest, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela shall withdraw the residual group of NANDINA subitems from their lists of exceptions to the Common External Tariff, by transferring them to Annex 1 to Decision 370, or, in the case of Ecuador, to Annex 2 to Decision 370.

Article 4.- Ecuador may maintain its special system of import prices for the fuels in NANDINA subitems 2710.00.11, 2710.00.19, 2710.00.41, 2710.00.49, 2710.00.60, 2710.00.99 and 2714.90.00, up to December 31, 2000 or, in any case, up to the moment when the liberalization of the fuel trade has been completed in Ecuador, on which date the subitems shall be assigned their corresponding tariff level of Annex 1 to Decision 370.

Article 5.- Any tariff modifications made pursuant to this Decision should be communicated to the General Secretariat.

Promulgated in the city of Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, on the twenty-fifth of May of nineteen ninety-nine.