A Colombian official tells Brownfield the pending US/Colombia Free Trade Agreement is long overdue for ratification. Claudia Candela, director of Colombia’s Trade Bureau in Washington, says they are interested in the prompt passage of the FTA. Colombia is a net importer of corn, wheat and soybeans and the U.S. is losing ground…
“What we are seeing is the U.S. is losing the market share on agricultural products that it used to have in Colombia.”
In2008, Candela says the US had a 46 percent market share of the three grains…and, it’s diminished by at least half of that…
“Argentina, Brazil and Canada have been taking over that part of the marketshare that the U.S. is leaving.”
Candela says the phase-out of some schedules in the 2005 Mercusor free trade agreement, of which the South American countries are a part, has led to cheaper prices – and, Candela says, quality of grains.
And further putting pressure on US agriculture is the Canada/Colombia FTA which will soon go into effect…
“It is just pending a final part from our constitutional court that should be in place very early this year.”
If the US/Colombia FTA is approved Candela says part of that market share will be recovered. Next week, Colombian grain importers will come to Washington to meet with members of the Obama administration and the US Congress to explain the importance of the US/Colombia relationship.
She says they are working well with the private sector in the US, especially with agriculture…
“Even though the size of the market in Colombia is not as big as any other market, still there’s many jobs involved. And, people on both sides, in Colombia and here, they do want to have this approved, too.”
Ambassadors with the three countries with pending free trade agreements with the US – Colombia, Korea and Panama – were invited to join in a town hall meeting put on by the AFBF in Atlanta. Candela says Ambassador Silva could not attend and had to return to Colombia at the last minute.
AUDIO: Claudia Candela (5 min. MP3)
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