Colombia Anticipates
Free Trade Deal With Panama In Weeks
PANAMA - Visiting Colombian President
Alvaro Uribe said Friday that his government
is working on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA)
with Panama, which could be reached "in a
few weeks."
"We have all the enthusiasm to achieve in a
few weeks the FTA with Panama," Uribe said
at a regional business conference.
Uribe added that his country has been
signing trade agreements with many
countries, which has boosted its foreign
trade and benefited its economy.
A free trade deal is expected to greatly
enhance commercial links between Colombia
and Panama. Their two-way trade generated
some 185 million U.S. dollars annually.
Uribe also called for more efforts to finish
the Colombia-Panama section of the
Pan-American highway.
An 87-km stretch of rainforest between the
borders of Colombia and Panama has been a
controversial part of the ambitious highway.
Many groups and environmentalists have been
against completing the section between
Panama's Darien Province and the Darien Gap
on the Colombian border.
They believed a road link will destroy the
rainforest in the area, disrupt the lives of
indigenous peoples and lead to rampant drug
trafficking. |
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