Colombia: VII Negotiating Round of the Free Trade Agreement

In the framework of the VII Negotiating Round of the Free Trade Agreement between Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, and the United States, with Bolivia as observer, the CAF and the OAS held the seminar "Internal Agenda for Productivity and Competitiveness" on February 8 in the Cartagena Convention Center. The objective of the event was to present the experiences of Chile, Costa Rica and Mexico in the building and execution of competitiveness agendas, as a contribution to the reflections and discussion on how to meet the challenges and exploit the opportunities offered by a free trade agreement with the United States through an agenda that promotes the competitiveness of the private sector.

Over 350 participants including representatives of the private sector, union representatives, academics, government officials, and parliamentarians attended the event. The speakers were Joaquín Vial, economic studies manager with BBVA Chile; Enrique Egglof, former director of the Costa Rican Coalition of Development Initiatives; and Francisco Fernández-Castillo, director of the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness. The event aroused great interest among the participants and was the basis for the later exchange of ideas between the members of the FTA Panel on Building Trade Capacities aimed at stimulating the internal competitiveness agendas in the participating countries.