(Reuters)Panama suspended free trade talks with Colombia after bargaining stalled ahead of a Friday, Oct 29 deadline, even though much of the pact was completed, one of the Central American nation’s negotiators said.
Talks hit an impasse over agricultural issues, market access and customs cooperation, said Francisco Alvarez, Pamana’s deputy trade minister.
“Instead of forcing the close (of negotiations) or generating some kind of crisis… we believed what was responsible in this moment was to suspend the process,” Alvarez told Reuters.
Alvarez said negotiators had reached agreements on at least 21 of the treaty’s 25 chapters, but that no date for fresh talks had been set.
The two neighbours announced plans in February to negotiate a trade pact that they said would double bilateral trade.
Trade between the two countries, including seafood, agricultural products and construction materials, was worth US$300 million (RM933 million) in 2009.
A former province of Colombia, Panama gained its independence in 1903 and retains close ties with its neighbor. But the two countries have squabbled in the past over more than US$1 billion in goods Colombia buys from Panama’s Caribbean tax-free zone due to shipping restrictions imposed by Colombia. — Reuters