Opening of the Colombian-Venezuelan border will be done in the short term: authorities

CUCUTA, COLOMBIA —

The Colombian Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, Germán Umaña, said that the opening of the border with Venezuela will take place in the short term, under conditions of legality and security.

The official made the comment on Thursday, while participating in Cúcuta in the ‘Border Agreement’ forum, which seeks to promote binational integration before the reestablishment of diplomatic and consular relations between Colombia and Venezuelawith the arrival of the new Colombian government.

The meeting, which was facilitated by Fedecamaras (Venezuela) and the Inter-union Committee of Norte de Santander (Colombia), was attended by the newly appointed ambassador of Colombia in Caracas, Armando Benedetti, who raised, during his short speech, social investment in the border area and mentioned the possibility of returning the Monómeros company to the Maduro government, arguing issues of food sovereignty.

Umaña said that the opening will take place in the short term, under conditions of legality and security. In the same way, he announced that in 2021 binational trade was 315 million dollars, and only in six months of 2022, this same figure was achieved, indicating that at the end of the year it is expected that with a closed or open border this trade will double. reaching more than 600 million dollars. To date there is not a single dollar in debt, thanks to legal and advance payment mechanisms, he indicated.

He also announced that the airline Avianca is already authorized by Colombia to offer routes to the neighboring country and only what is concerned is missing, by the Venezuelan authorities, and invited the other airlines that operate in the country to prepare and offer flights to Venezuela.

At a press conference, it was indicated that with the approval of the presidents of both countries, their respective ministries are already in dialogues and workshops to start these new relationships between their peers. He specified that he is only waiting for the negotiations to advance and finally the presidents to give their approval and the long-awaited opening of pedestrian, vehicular and cargo borders through the different existing border crossings.

The Minister of Transportation, Guillermo Reyes, gave his share of calm regarding the mobilization of the nationals regarding the structure of the four border bridges, after the studies carried out previously; however, he pointed out that they have the budgets to repower and adapt them, if necessary.

On the part of the commercial and industrial associations of both countries, they agreed on the urgency of reactivating the productive and commercial apparatus after seven years of closure. They advocated that not only commercial and cargo transport relations be built, but also that this area be converted into a meeting point for strategic and long-term relations in a formal way.

Although the date of the border reopening is still uncertain, the certainty is that it will be in the very short term, taking into account that the governments have advanced quickly in their negotiations without losing any day, even before the possession of the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro.

Balance of 1,500 million dollars

Meetings like the one that took place this Thursday on Colombian soil and expert forecasts allow us to calculate that the trade balance between the two countries could amount to 1,500 million dollars this year, he stressed in an interview with the voice of america, the economist and professor at the Catholic University of Táchira, on the Venezuelan border, Aldo Contreras.

That amount exceeded 7,000 million dollars before the closing of the borders between Colombia and Venezuela, seven years ago, highlights the also president of the College of Economists of Táchira, a neighboring region of Cúcuta, in the North of Santander, and where binational economic cooperation tends to be most dynamic.

“The border does not open because, somehow, the unions put pressure on it, but the businessmen, the customs agents, those in charge of international cargo transport yards, they know what they have to do” to reactivate economic activity between Colombia and Venezuela as soon as the border reopens, he points out.

He believes that there is a very different reality from that of previous years, when Venezuela put its industrial and energy capacity at the service of Colombia, to the point of selling it electrical capacity, he recalls. “It had a lot to offer and export,” but not anymore, he says.

Colombia will be “the great winner” of this economic moment with the imminent commercial reactivation and resumption of diplomatic relations between the two countries, he considers.

“The great challenge we have is to ask ourselves what is the exportable offer that Venezuela has,” says Contreras, who has proposed to the authorities the installation of a Planning and Development Council and the return of Venezuela to the Andean Community of Nations.

“An open border is required, where exchange houses are opened, where legality returns, where there are corresponding sanitary permits (for products), where a balance of payments of 1,500 million dollars is revitalized,” he insists.

[Con la colaboración de Gustavo Ocando Alex de la VOA]

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