Petro and Maduro sign agreement to strengthen commercial relations

Presidents Gustavo Petro and Nicolás Maduro formalized on Thursday the reestablishment of trade relations between Colombia and Venezuela, through the so-called Partial Scope Agreement No. 28 on bilateral trade.

“We are signing a partial agreement, which is one more integration step than ever, in my opinion, should have been suspended,” said President Petro, from the Atanasio Girardot bridge, which connects the Colombian department of Norte de Santander with the Venezuelan state. tachira

Petro also stressed that trade must be generated on the recently opened bridges, as well as remove trade barriers.

For his part, Maduro pointed out that with the signing of the trade agreement “everything that has to do with tariffs, exchange products, priorities, lays the foundations for a new dynamic of expansion” between the countries.

This agreement, which has been in force since 2012, adds to the recent signing of the bilateral investment protection agreement.

During the meeting, the Venezuelan president also proposed to Petro the creation of a binational economic zone of shared development between Norte de Santander and Táchira.

“We should set up an economic team, where the governors and mayors of the area participate so that we can start to take numbers, to project ideas, which would perhaps be a gigantic historical step,” Maduro proposed.

relationship building

Maduro highlighted that he is “in a new phase of building relationships in every way” and that “although his aspirations have not reached the dimension, “they are setting a good pace, a good dynamic.”

He also stated that the situation in Venezuela is different, and that it is subject to “a regime of blockade and economic persecution”, but stressed that it is improving and that last year it had a growth of 15% of GDP.

On the other hand, the Colombian president rejected the consequences of closing the border, such as the illegal trails, where “people passed from one side to another, in a systematic violation of human rights against women, of sexual abuse,” added Petro, who He emphasized that the border was handed over “to the mafia, to the organizations that, degraded in the conflict in the illegal economies, made their domain around this line.”

“It cannot happen again,” stressed the Colombian president, who arrived in Norte de Santander on Thursday morning, where he met with community action boards from the department.

He most recent encounter between the two presidents took place on January 7 at the Miraflores Palace in Caracas. From September 2022 they have been normalizing trade and diplomatic relations between the two countries.

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