Geraldine Garcia | Puente Tienditas (Colombia), (EFE) new trade agreement.
Maduro, who for the first time visited the border with Colombia as president, was the first to arrive at the recently inaugurated Atanasio Girardot international bridge, which connects the state of Táchira (Venezuela) with the department of Norte de Santander (Colombia), in the company of his wife, Cilia Flores, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez and the Colombian Ambassador to Venezuela, Armando Benedetti, among other officials.
The current Venezuelan president had visited the border with Colombia in 2010, while he was chancellor of then President Hugo Chávez, for a meeting with his counterpart at the time, María Ángela Holguín.
Although Petro and Maduro had already met twice, both were in Caracas and this Thursday was the first meeting of both on a border that was closed for seven years due to differences between the two governments, which only six months ago reestablished the Broken relationships in February 2019.
At the Atanasio Girardot bridge, colloquially known as Tienditas, the president reached the checkpoint, toured its infrastructure, greeted the officials on duty and approached the press who were waiting for him on the side of the border control offices while waiting for Petro .
change in relationships
“Our relations are taking a new dynamic of political, diplomatic dialogues (…) a new economic, commercial, population dynamic,” Maduro said in his speech after recalling the reestablishment of diplomatic relations with Colombia, a step that was made possible by the arrival of Petro to power, on August 7.
The Colombian president, for his part, advocated “removing barriers” to border trade and deepening relations so that “people can live without fear,” after signing the trade agreement with Maduro.
The agreement was signed on a platform raised in the middle of the Atanasio Girardot bridge where a white line drawn on the green mat, similar to a soccer field, marked the border between Colombia and Venezuela.
The two seated presidents, one in each country and flanked by flags, delivered their speeches against an equestrian painting of the Liberator Simón Bolívar as a background.
increased sharing
The objective of the agreement is to reach the goal of 1,800 million dollars in commercial operations this year, a result that, if materialized, will multiply by eight the 222 million dollars of 2020, the worst year of the bilateral relationship, but still well below of the record of 7,000 million dollars reached in 2008.
“It is expected that in 2023 trade will continue its growth trend, reaching a total trade (of) between 1,700 and 1,800 million dollars,” says the joint statement of the meeting.
With this agreement, both governments seek to “promote integration to consolidate development” through agreements “in terms of access to markets and origin of goods,” says the letter that also speaks of “promoting the complementarity of trade in goods through of productive diversification”.
The document is an update of the Trade Agreement in force since 2012, and which had been signed on November 28, 2011 by the then presidents Juan Manuel Santos and Hugo Chávez.
“We signed an agreement to fill the trade bridges, we have removed the barriers. There is still a lot to be done because it is not about filling them with commerce, but rather filling them with people who can come and go without fear,” said Petro.
Maduro, for his part, pointed out that the Venezuela of 2011 is very different from that of now. “The Venezuela of 2011 had net oil income of 56,000 million dollars, an oil checkbook to take out and buy what had to be bought in the world. We imported 80% of everything, shoes, shirts, cars, onions, potatoes, meat, whatever.”
The Venezuelan president took advantage of the occasion to propose to Petro the creation of a binational commercial zone of shared development between Norte de Santander and Táchira in order to take better advantage of the potential of that region that is beginning to resurface after years of paralysis due to political differences.
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