Colombia signs FTA with Mercosur

January 2, 2006

President Alvaro Uribe signed, on December 30, 2005, a law that ratifies a FTA with Mercosur and gives Colombian products preferential access to a market of 230 million people. Colombian entrepreneurs will also be able to import materials and capital goods from Mercosur at lower costs due to reduced tariffs resulting from the agreement.

The agreement’s asymmetry clauses favor Colombia because it allows the gradual and progressive reduction of tariffs and likewise gives Colombia the opportunity to gradually reform its production system to adapt it to the requirements of future negotiations within the scheme of Mercosur and the South American Community of Nations

This agreement along with previous treaties signed with the Andean Community, Mexico, Chile and the FTA with the United States currently under negotiation, highlight the geographic position of Colombia as a center for investment.