ASSESSMENTS

Colombia's Enthusiasm for Free Trade Wanes

May 9, 2018 | 11:00 GMT

A March 2014 view of Buenaventura, Colombia's main seaport on the Pacific coast.

A view of Buenaventura, Colombia's main seaport on the Pacific coast. Colombia holds a presidential election May 27. All of the main candidates have said they oppose Colombia signing new free trade agreements.

(LUIS ROBAYO/AFP/Getty Images)

Highlights

  • As Colombia's trade and current account deficits swell and opposition from the country's manufacturing sector grows, its major presidential candidates have all said they're against the country signing new free trade agreements.
  • Despite that consensus, there are major differences in the positions of the two leading presidential candidates. Ivan Duque favors slowing the pace of trade liberalization but does not want protectionism. Gustavo Petro, meanwhile, would like to revise Colombia's existing free trade deals, including the one with the United States.
  • Colombia currently is negotiating free trade agreements with Japan, Turkey, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand, but the talks with Japan and Turkey are the ones mostly likely to be delayed or dropped under a new presidential administration.

Colombia is losing its appetite for new free trade agreements. Over the past decade, Colombia has been a leading advocate of free trade in South America, signing more than a dozen bilateral or multilateral free trade agreements. But with trade and current account deficits on the rise, and with manufacturers and other key members of the economy increasingly expressing their dissatisfaction that the agreements have failed to live up to their billing, Colombia is pondering a change of pace. While it's unlikely the country will become protectionist, Colombia will slow its recent fast move toward more free trade agreements....

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