According to Fernando Cardesa García, Ambassador of the Delegation of the European Commission to Colombia and Ecuador, the bilateral talks with Columbia are expected to start by the second week of February. If things moved as planned, negotiations would conclude in June and some adjustments should be made in September and October, he added in an interview to Columbia’s leading magazine, Semana.
In last December, the European Union (EU) had decided to pursue a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Peru and Colombia despite reservations from Bolivia and Ecuador. The FTA is an extension to the EU’s Strategic Association (SA) deal with the Andean Community of Nations (CAN), which includes Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia.
The forthcoming FTA negotiations will be on behest of a formal appeal by Peru and Columbia to the EU in expediting the process of talks. The negotiations have been protracted for a while since Bolivia and Ecuador dissociated them from a full-fledged FTA instead of SA deal.
Through this FTA Columbia aims to catch up with other members of CAN in increasing exports to the EU. Columbia’s trade with the EU is largely confined to agricultural products and energy though machinery, transport equipment, chemicals and textiles made a negligible presence.
On the other hand, the Columbian products such as banana, coal, coffee and ferronickel found the way to the EU markets. However, with the new deal both the parties expect to extend it beyond the presently traded few items.
García pointed out that this was the best time to innovate and diversify he was referring to the ongoing global economic crisis. He further said in introspection to the 1930 crises, the restrictions to international commerce then had only enabled to impoverish the neighbours. He indirectly meant that increased trade practices among countries would only help to overcome the current crises than sticking on to protectionism theory.
Even though Columbia was regarded as one of the countries with social inequalities the political stability was the major reason for them to expand the scope of trade, stated the EU Ambassador. He however confirmed that the primary focus would be on Markets, foreign investment and intellectual property regime rather than Columbia’s human rights status which hampered progress in trade talks with Canada earlier. In his interview, he also drew attention to the similar deals with Mexico and Chile which helped both countries to quadruple their exports to the EU in last six years.