The Summit of the Pacific Alliance celebrated this week in Cartagena, Colombia has left the certainty that this regional initiative has reached an interesting level of maturity.

The four member countries signed a protocol in which they agree on the tax relief of 92% of the products they trade among themselves, while 8% left, will be incorporated to the same scheme in a period of no more than 17 years

When this alliance was created, in April 2011, the presidents of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru expressed their idea to establish a “deep area of integration” with free circulation of goods, capitals, services and people.

Protocols like the one signed this week seem to be totally aligned with the foundational objectives.

In this meeting, a plan was made to incorporate Costa Rica as a fifth member of the block. This incorporation will be carried out when Costa Rica closes its free trade agreements with Mexico and Colombia, since the Alliance establishes as entrance requirement, having free trade agreements with all the members.

The magazine The Economist has shown its surprise because of the speed with which this block has progressed in the fulfillments of its goals. This dynamic of the Pacific Alliance is remarkable when we see the reality of the Mercosur, stuck by political issues and protectionist

The advances made by the Pacific Alliance are related with the fact that its members share economic policies committed to free trade, fiscal responsibility, stability of game rules and a common view about the advantages of the opening towards the world, especially towards Asia Pacific. These common views have nothing to do with ideologies, since in the block there are centre-right governments and social-democrat ones.

The Pacific Alliance is a necessary platform to make advances inside the member countries in achieving more modern, formal, dynamic and inclusive labor markets