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Chilean FM to Visit Colombia
Bogota - The Chilean Minister
of Foreign Affairs Mariano Fernandez will
visit Colombia to discuss bilateral
relations, confirmed the Colombian Foreign
Affairs Ministry.
The stay will coincide
with the 5th Meeting of the Permanent
Bi-national Commission to launch the free
trade treaty (FTT) between both nations that
went into force on May 8 and an
administrative agreement will be signed to
apply the Convention of Social Security and
hold the 2nd Meeting of the Cultural,
Education and Sports Joint Commission.
Fernandez and his Colombian counterpart,
Jaime Bermudez will review trade,
cooperation and security and analyze
regional and multilateral mechanisms,
informed a source.
The FTT signed between Colombia and Chile in
2006 came into force last Friday.
According to the Colombian minister of
Trade, Industry and Tourism, Luis Guillermo
Plata, the agreement opens important
possibilities of growth of bilateral trade
and new areas like services and public
purchases.
Plata for his part expressed confidence in
sectors such as informatics and software
services, health, audiovisual systems,
construction and engineering and ecotourism
that are new trade advantages.
Some sectors consider that the FTT
represents a strengthening of neo-liberal
free market adjustments and competition that
weaken the institutions.
Its effects, they add, damage sectors with a
lesser capacity of response to processes
such as flexibility of the labor market and
weaken social movements.
According to official sources, Colombian
exports to Chile in 2008 grew 125 percent
compared to 2007, surpassing the 376 million
dollar mark to 849 million. |
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