Panama-Colombia free trade talks stall
Newsroom Panama | 20 March 2013
Panama-Colombia free trade talks stall
The sixth round of negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement between Panama and Colombia in Medellin, closed in Medellin last Friday without any agreement being reached.
Each country will now consider the proposals line by line and take its position to the next round be held in late May in Panama.
Capital, com reports that onn the issue of the Colon Free Zone, Surse Pierpoint, president of the Association of Members said "In this climate it is impossible to move forward on a trade agreement which would validate the current negative effects on the trade of goods from Panama ".
The first Vice President of the Association of Users of the Colon Free Zone, Luis Germán Gómez, reiterated the urgent need to find an understanding so that Colombia lifts all restrictions on the entry of goods into the country from the zone, the Colombian market being one of its main destinations.
Gomez explained that once the measure was applied in early March, many Colombian buyers chose not to purchase goods from the Colon Free Zone waiting for a decision from their country, meaning that it has generated a lot of uncertainty.
In the view of the Counsel for the Association of Users of the Colon Free Zone, Leroy Sheffer, these are measures that affect the free flow of world trade and "we hope that this is how the Colombian government will understands it, it being their turn to evaluate this point". Other sticking points have been coffee, cattle and milk, with the Panama agricultural sector fearing it will be swamped with cheaper supplies from Colombia,
