Uribe Says Venezuela Has ‘Berlin Wall’ With Colombia

Dec. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said Venezuela has put up an illegal trade embargo that is becoming a “Berlin Wall,” cutting off the South American neighbors.

“People have complained so much about the embargo against Cuba, and now Venezuela has an embargo against Colombia,” Uribe said, according to the transcript of a radio interview posted today on the presidential Web site. “And what worries me, because it generates distrust, is that other countries have taken the opportunity to go to the Venezuelan market and substitute Colombian products.”

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said in July he was “freezing” ties with his second-biggest trading partner and would do away with Colombian imports as Uribe moved ahead with a plan to allow the U.S. military access to seven Colombian bases. The following month Argentina agreed to send Venezuela $1 billion in goods, including 10,000 cars originally slated to come from Colombia.

Tensions worsened last month after Venezuelan soldiers blew up two foot bridges along the shared border. Venezuelan General Eusebio Aguero said last week troops plan to destroy six more such bridges on suspicion they’re being used to traffic drugs and contraband. Colombia says they’re community crossings.

‘Sealing Off’

“Chavez has deliberately tried to downgrade the bilateral relationship on the economic side and politically,” Peter DeShazo, director of the Americas program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said in a phone interview. “But in terms of sealing off the border, that would be difficult to do.”

Trade between the two countries last year totaled about $7 billion. In September, Colombian exports to Venezuela fell 50 percent from the same month a year earlier, according to the national statistics agency.

The Colombian peso fell 2.5 percent to 2,075 per dollar on July 29, the day the freeze was announced. The currency has since recovered, climbing to 1,993 per dollar at today’s close.

The plunge in sales to Venezuela has hindered Colombia’s economic recovery and increased unemployment, according to the central bank. Uribe said Colombia is seeking new markets to counteract that slowdown.

“We have faith that we’re taking off in important economies such as Brazil’s, Chile’s, in Central America, in the Caribbean, in Asia,” he said.

Colombia is taking steps to secure free trade agreements with countries including the Dominican Republic, Japan, South Korea and Australia, according to the trade ministry. Accords with several Central American and European countries went into effect this year.

Source: bloomberg.com/