At its 1st Joint Committee meeting on 5 October 2006, Colombia and the EFTA States exchanged views on the state of play of their bilateral trade and investment relations. The Colombian side expressed their interest in launching negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement at the next meeting of the Joint Committee.
On 6 October the EFTA delegation had a fruitful meeting with the private sector of Colombia. Participants discussed issues relating to the main Colombian export interests including; customs duties and procedures, agricultural products and sanitary and phytosanitary measures.
A Joint Declaration on Cooperation between the EFTA States and Colombia was signed 17 May 2006. The main objectives of the Declaration are to enhance economic relations and to establish a framework for the expansion, diversification and liberalisation of trade and investment. Under the Declaration, the EFTA States and Colombia will seek to create favourable conditions conducive to capital flows and investment, thus improving conditions for private sector industrial co-operation.
The Joint Committee aims at serving as a forum to put the co-operation into practice and to discuss other issues of mutual interest to the Parties. They discussed the main trade policy issues including: trade in goods, agriculture, trade in services, government procurement, competition, intellectual property rights and investment. The Parties agreed to meet again early next year to discuss possible further steps in their trade relations.