Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia approve free circulation of vehicles to boost tourism affected by pandemic

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The latest resolution of the Andean Community of Nations (CAN) will facilitate the entry, stay, and temporary departure of vehicles for private use by tourists in the organization’s member countries. Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia have accepted this resolution to promote tourism in the nations and even created the CAN Ad Hoc Group on Tourism to work on the reactivation of the sector.

According to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), during the most challenging months of the coronavirus pandemic, between January and October 2020, a loss of USD 935 billion in international tourism revenues was recorded. The UNWTO estimated that this loss is ten times higher than that which occurred in 2009 due to the global economic crisis.

For example, so far in 2021, there has been a decrease of 86% in the arrival of foreign tourists to South American countries. According to the UNWTO, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru, three of the four CAN countries are among the ten nations in the American continent most affected with registered losses on international tourism.

In this context, the CAN members took a supranational decision to allow vehicles to enter and leave the territory of the member countries free of taxes and through official border customs control points.

As explained by CAN in a press release, the term of validity of the authorization for the temporary exit and return of the vehicle to the country of origin will be one year from its issuance.

The period of stay granted to the vehicle by the country’s customs authority where tourism will take place will depend on the permission granted to the tourist by the immigration authority, according to the immigration laws of each country.

The regulation was approved during the 154th Extraordinary Meeting of the CAN Commission in which the Secretary-General of the Andean Community, Jorge Hernando Pedraza and the Vice Ministers of Commerce of Ecuador, Daniel Legarda on behalf of the Pro Tempore Presidency, Benjamín Blanco of Bolivia, Andrés Cárdenas of Colombia and Diego Llosa of Peru participated.

The Secretary-General of the CAN, Jorge Hernando Pedraza, stated that “this new Andean regulation, which offers facilities for the movement of the more than 111 million citizens of the CAN, will contribute to the reactivation of the tourism sector and therefore to the economic and social recovery of our region”.

Currently, the Pro Tempore Presidency of the CAN belongs to Ecuador, for this reason, the Ecuadorian Ministry of Tourism presented at the meeting the “Andean Roads” initiative to jointly promote the reactivation of this sector in the region.

According to information published by the Ecuadorian Ministry of Tourism, the CAN member countries will work on the project that seeks to strengthen tourism in the region, highlighting the value of the CAN countries’ heritage, culture, cuisine, and nature.

The decision on the free circulation of vehicles for tourism purposes will enter into force 180 calendar days after publication of its Regulations in the Official Gazette of the Cartagena Agreement.

In addition to this decision, the countries also approved the Common Nomenclature for the Description and Codification of Goods of the Member Countries of the Andean Community (NANDINA). This nomenclature is related to the World Customs Organization’s harmonized system. It will facilitate the identification and classification of goods, the compilation of statistics, customs management, and the implementation of national tariffs in the CAN countries.

According to the World Tourism Organization, the extended scenarios for 2021-2024 presented by the United Nations specialized agency for tourism indicate an upturn in the second half of 2021. However, it may take two and a half to four years to return to 2019 levels.