March 15, 2006

 

Colombia pledges support for Bolivia soy exports

 

 

Colombian president Alvaro Uribe pledged Tuesday (March 14) to support Bolivian soy exports to Colombia that are threatened by a new free trade agreement to be signed between the Colombian and US governments.

 

Bolivian President Evo Morales has expressed concern over the Colombian-US free trade agreement which sets a quota for soy Colombia must buy from the US and effectively shuts out Bolivian soy. Colombia is Bolivia's top soy buyer.

 

Uribe, on a one-day visit to Bolivia, said the two countries would initiate "political" efforts to convince Washington to make room for Bolivian soy in the Colombian market at least in the short term.

 

"Our vice presidents of Colombia and Bolivia are going to seek a meeting with the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice...This political agreement that the government of President Evo Morales is proposing to President George Bush will be supported by Colombia," Uribe said.

 

In 2005, Bolivia exported 500,000 tonnes of soy to Colombia worth US$166 million. In the free trade agreement Colombia has negotiated with the US, it is required to buy 900,000 tonnes of US soy.

 

Bolivian Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera said there had been "receptivity but also hardness" on the part of Uribe.

 

"What they have told us is that Colombia is not going to modify its free trade agreement with the US unless in an extraordinary way the US opens up a discussion about soy," Garcia Linera said.

 

In the end, Colombia will sign the trade agreement with the US and it cannot guarantee the Colombian market for Bolivian soy, Uribe said. The agreement still needs to be approved by the congress of both countries.

 

The US is also negotiating free trade agreements with Peru and Ecuador but has not begun negotiations with Bolivia.

 

Morales, a leftist and long time critic of US economic policy, has not yet approached the US government to open negotiations for a trade pact. The US extended lowered export tariffs to Bolivia, along with the other Andean nations, in an effort to reward nations cooperating in the war on drugs. The act is set to expire at the end of this year.