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The extreme poverty of Washington’s offer contrasts sharply with its excessive
ambition to ship its products to the Colombian market.
The two U.S. proposals received by the Ministry of Commerce on Tuesday and
Thursday, were described as unacceptable by the Society of Colombian Agriculturists
(SAC), the reason being, according to the president of the guild, Rafael Mejía,
“conditions do not yet exist for holding a bilateral round of agricultural
talks,” which have been postponed since last July 11.
During previous negotiations for the Free Trade Agreement [U.S.-Andean Free
Trade Agreement], Colombia asked the United States to immediately open its markets
to its products, to which the Americans offered to eliminate tariffs in terms
of five, ten or more years.
After that frustrating answer, Mejía said, the United States sought
the immediate opening of the Colombian market, seeking even more favorable terms,
"which is little less than inconceivable.”
In the same manner, he added, the American negotiators flatly deny the distortions
of production and commerce caused by their own subsidies to [agricultural] production
and disavow the size and structural differences between their own farming and
agro-industrial economy with Colombia’s.
In a letter sent to the ministers of Commerce and Agriculture, Jorge Humberto
Botero and Aryan Andrés Felipe, and to Colombia’s chief negotiator,
Hernando Jose Go'mez, Mejía wrote that the government should propose
that the United States lower medium and long-term duties on farmers whose produce
is denied entry due to sanitary rules and technical obstacles.
Thus far, "the proposals for negotiations on products of interest to Colombia
have resulted in less than nothing ... the United States satisfied none of our
(Colombia’s) requests in issues related to farming and livestock,”
insisted the SAC president.
For that reason, the group has asked the Government to take a firm position
and confront the government of the United States, so that this country adjusts
and significantly improves the fairness of the proposals before a resumption
of bilateral talks, allowing for more viable negotiations.
The approval of CAFTA [Central American Free Trade Agreement] this past Thursday
has lead Colombian trade union leaders to say that there is no longer any excuse
to delay negotiations on the Andean Free Trade Agreement, which, according to
the tone of SAC, will likely remain at a standstill due to the inflexibility
of American negotiators.