MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Colombia and US reach free trade treaty

Colombia's Trade minister confirmed Monday in Washington that his country had concluded talks for a free trade agreement with United States after nearly two years of negotiations.

"We feel it was worth the effort and that we are bringing a very good agreement back to our country" said Jorge Humberto Botero, Colombia's Trade minister.

The deal is designed to advance free trade, promote economic development and combat cocaine trafficking, US trade Representative Rob Portman said.

Talks between Washington and Andean nations Colombia, Peru and Ecuador began back in May 2004 but the US and Colombia had been at loggerheads over duty-free quotas on agricultural products.

Colombia has been seeking more access to the US sugar market, while wanting to protect its own rice, poultry and other farming activities.

The final round of negotiations, which began February 17, was expected to end Saturday night but dragged on through the weekend.

"In addition to eliminating tariffs, Colombia will remove barriers to trade in services, provide a secure, predictable legal framework for U.S. investors operating in Colombia, provide for effective enforcement of labour and environmental laws, protect intellectual property, and provide an effective system to settle disputes" added Portman.

"For Colombia, it's much more important to have access to the U.S. market than for the US to have access to Colombia's market" pointed out Botero.

Over the next few weeks, negotiators from the two countries will have to hammer out the final text of the agreement in English and Spanish. The official text, which will undergo a legal review, will be published later. The text of the document will have to be approved by Colombia's Constitutional Court, Botero said.

US currently has free trade negotiations with several countries in Latin America, including Ecuador and Panama but the Bush administration is pushing to wrap up trade talks before July 1, 2007, when its authorization to cut such deals without congressional approval expires. U.S. and Peru wrapped up negotiations with Peru last December.

Trade talks with Ecuador are on going while Bolivia has participated as an observer and could become part of the Andean free trade agreement in the future.

US trade with Colombia, Peru and Ecuador totaled about 24 billion US dollars in 2004, according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative.

In 2005 US/Colombia trade reached 14.5 billion US dollars with Colombia figuring as the second-largest Latinamerican agricultural market for the US.