Panama and Colombia take the first steps for a Free Trade Agreement
January 19, 2010 by ursula
Filed under Business and Investment
Panama will host the second exploratory meeting for the FTA
A Bilateral Partial Agreement between Panama and Colombia is already in force
Photo from left to right: Ambassador of Panama in Colombia, Ricardo Anguizola, Ambassador of Colombia in Panama, Gina Benedetti, Minister of Trade and Industry of Panama, Roberto Henriquez and Deputy Vice Minister of International Trade Negotiations Panama, Francisco Alvarez De Soto.
Panama will host the second exploratory meeting for the negotiations of a the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Panama and Colombia, the next 11 and 12 of February confirmed the Minister of Trade and Industry (MICI) of Panama, Roberto Henriquez.
The Minister Henriquez commented, after the first exploratory meeting last Friday in Bogota that “the structure, scope and principles of the negotiating framework will be the main issues in this second meeting.” He added that the negotiating teams of both countries will also clarify the legal and statistical information to be exchanged in the coming weeks.
The first exploratory meeting served to the Minister of MICI and its counterpart in Colombia, Luis Guillermo Plata, to define the fundamental concepts that should work for the heads of trade negotiations and their work teams to establish the framework for negotiations.
“The Minister Plata and I agreed that the treaty should be comprehensive in its coverage of the supply of goods and services of both countries,” said Minister Henriquez, while adding that “the vice ministers of the two countries must present a framework that incorporates the appropriate way to address the imbalances between the two economies and to ensure that the text of the document is evolutionary. ”
He explained that they will try to find the mechanism for “allowing updates of the natural progress of bilateral trade in the future, under this Treaty.”
The first meeting included the both Deputy Ministers of each country, responsible for trade negotiations in Panama and Colombia, Francisco Alvarez de Soto and Gabriel Duque, respectively.
Negotiating teams exchanged economic reports and reviewed the implementation by Colombia of the World Trade Organization to dismantle port measures and reference prices affecting exports from the Colon Free Zone of Panama. They also agreed to exchange on statistics reports and legislation.
Article courtesy of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry of Panama.
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