Petro and Maduro sign a trade agreement between Colombia and Venezuela
The presidents of Colombia and Venezuela signed a new agreement on Thursday to promote commercial activity and integration between the two nations
The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, and his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolás Maduro, signed a trade agreement between the two countries on Thursday, with the aim of promoting joint balanced trade and advancing regional integration.
“We have signed a trade agreement. We have to fill these trade bridges, remove the barriers. There is still a lot to do, it is not a question of filling them only with trade, but rather filling them with the people. Democracy means that people can live without fear”, declared Petro.
The presidents have stressed that the objective is “to promote a more balanced, complementary trade, development and growth that benefits both peoples and their economies,” according to a statement published by the Colombian Presidency.
The Colombian ambassador in Caracas, Armando Benedetti, has stated that this measure is “one more step towards integration between two sister nations that should never have been suspended”, as he has published on his Twitter profile.
For his part, the Venezuelan president has expressed the importance that Colombia and Venezuela are “following the path of reunion and reunification,” reports the newspaper El Espectador.
In addition, Maduro has put on the table the proposal to create a special economic zone between Norte de Santander (Colombia) and the state of Táchira (Venezuela). This plan, which is added to the recently signed bilateral investment protection agreement, involves a tariff readjustment to stimulate trade relations in terms of market access and rules of origin for goods and products.
Both presidents, who have held a brief meeting on the border between the countries, have highlighted the resumption of relations with the signing of this trade agreement, reached in 2011, but which was in disuse due to the rupture of bilateral relations during the government by Ivan Duke.
Source: dpa
(Reference image source: Colombian Presidency, Europa Press)
Visit our news channel on Google News and follow us to get accurate, interesting information and stay up to date with everything. You can also see our daily content on Twitter and Instagram
