The new Colombia wins U.S. backing

COOPERATION ON BILATERAL ISSUES HAS INCREASED CONSIDERABLY BETWEEN WASHINGTON AND BOGOTA SINCE THE ARRIVAL OF ANDRES PASTRANA, DEMONSTRATED BY THE U.S. COMMITMENT TO PLAN COLOMBIA

U.S.-Colombian relations have been warm and cordial ever since the United States became one of the first nations to recognize the new republic some 179 years ago when Washington set up a resident diplomatic office there. Since then the two countries have built strong economic ties that have benefited both nations as well as the nearly 30,000 U.S. citizens based there and the 300 or so U.S. companies that operate in Colombia.
After sinking to an all-time low during the previous Samper administration, relations have improved significantly under the government of President Andres Pastrana, as evidenced by Washington’s positive and immediate response with a US$1.3 billion package to Colombia’s request early last year for international backing for Plan Colombia, and that was on top of nearly US$300 million of aid for the year 2000 that had previously been agreed upon, ranking Colombia third among all U.S. recipients of foreign aid.

“That figure not only reflected Colombia’s strategic position for the United States,” notes U.S. Ambassador to Colombia Anne W. Patterson, “but I think it also reflected fear. A 22% growth rate of coca cultivation was taking place here. There are huge areas of Colombian territory that are not under the control of the state. There are more than 200 little towns without even a police presence, so there are many places that drug traffickers could start to move into, and if they were to become allied with the guerrillas or paramilitaries there would be a serious problem.”

Ambassador Patterson was present at the last meeting between President Pastrana and President George W. Bush in the United States, “where they talked mostly about trade, and quite a bit less about Plan Colombia. They discussed at length the Andean Trade Preferences Act (ATPA) and the future Free Trade Area of the Americas. President Bush gave Mr. Pastrana his full commitment to try to get both an extension (past the December 2001 expiration date) and an expansion (to include more Andean products) of the ATPA,” the ambassador said.
Over the past ten years Colombia has continually ranked among the top 25 largest markets worldwide for U.S. products and the fifth largest in Latin America, while the United States remains Colombia’s principal trading partner. For the fiscal year 2000, the United States exported more than US$3.5 billion of goods and services to Colombia and imported US$6 billion worth.

President Bush has called on Congress to renew his father’s successful ATPA program for four years and has proposed his own US$882 million plan for the Andean Ridge nations called the Andean Regional Initiative (ARI), which expands on Plan Colombia to include that nation and its Andean neighbors.
State Department officials say the goal of the ARI is to provide a combination of social and economic development aid along with a comprehensive counter-drug strategy and represents a balanced approach to the problems facing the region.

Finance Minister Juan Manuel Santos believes that the 1991 ATPA has been an economic and strategic success and stress that it is imperative that the U.S. Congress votes to renew and expand it.
Mr. Santos feels that, in spite of the positive bilateral benefits of the ATPA over the past several years, the Andean nations are currently experiencing an economic downturn. Extension of an enhanced ATPA would go a long way towards reversing these problems, prolonging the benefits already in place and preserving critical foreign investment in the region. It would also help expand trade and ensure the viability of a number of critical, labor intensive industries in the region whose products are currently excluded under the program, such as apparel, footwear, tuna, leather goods, watches, sugar and petroleum.