President Gustavo Petro stated this Monday that the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States is"de facto suspended" since the Donald Trump administration imposed 10 percent tariffs and anticipated that he will announce decisions in response to the new crisis with Washington during the council of ministers convened for tonight.
"The FTA is suspended de facto and by unilateral decision of the US government. By imposing 10% tariffs, the FTA treaty has already been violated and the old tariff preferences that kept Colombia under US control have become null and void. They have been unilaterally broken by the US, not by us, and they leave us free. Let us not be afraid of being free, we have the whole world ahead of us, let us work to explore it, understand it, and seduce it," said the president.
The tweet came in response to a statement by former President Iván Duque, who asserted that the current tension between Bogotá and Washington could lead to the suspension of the FTA.
" I will respond intelligently, we have maintained the clauses of the FTA that survive, because we have felt like it, but the Ministry of Commerce has the decrees that I have not yet signed, with a Colombian position in defense of national work and the life of humanity," Petro added.
The president then announced that this Monday, at the Casa de Nariño, he will review the measures with the ambassador to Washington, Daniel García-Peña; Foreign Minister Rosa Villavicencio; Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez; the ministers of Agriculture and Commerce; and the director of the National Comprehensive Program for the Substitution of Illicit Crops (PNIS), Gloria Miranda.
"I will tell you at the televised Council of Ministers on public channels. I hope Teleantioquia will broadcast it. There should be no disinformation bubbles in the regions of Colombia. Antioquia also fought for national independence, and therefore, it is republican, democratic, and Gran Colombian," he reported.
Relations with the United States are on the line following Donald Trump's attacks on Gustavo Petro, calling him a"drug trafficking leader" and announcing the suspension of aid to Colombia. This comes after several weeks of provocations from the Colombian president, who has shown himself to be an opponent of the White House's military actions in the Caribbean Sea, the possibility of an intervention in Venezuela, and Israel's offensive in Gaza.
Interior Minister Armando Benedetti defended President Gustavo Petro and denied that the tension with his US counterpart is due to electoral interests."We are not in an electoral campaign. Creating this type of situation with Trump is too suicidal or dangerous. They can't tell us we're going crazy or fighting with Trump just because," the head of government policy stated on FM.
The Foreign Ministry, for its part, indicated that it will appeal to international bodies to defend national sovereignty and the"dignity" of President Petro.
Juan Pablo Penagos Ramirez
