Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos. (Photo courtesy of Ministerio TIC Colombia on Flickr)

President Juan Manuel Santos and Israeli President Shimon Peres signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) this morning in Jerusalem.

Once the agreement comes into effect, 70% of goods exchanged between the countries will be exempt from customs taxes– a percentage that will steadily increase levels of commerce between the two nations over the next ten years.

After meeting for about an hour, Santos and Peres signed the agreements along with the respective countries’ economic and trade ministers: Sergio Díaz Granados and Nafatlí Bennet.

Today’s endorsement of the FTA comes after nearly 15 months negotiations regarding the bilateral agreement.

The agreement will now be sent to the legislature of both countries, which are expected to ratify the FTA. Pending congressional approval, the stipulations of the accord are to become effective in September.

Today, the Colombian president tweeted: “We have concluded negotiations for the free trade agreement with Israel. This means more investment and more employment. Beginning today, flights will open up between Israel and Colombia as will the exchange of technology and innovation. [The FTA] will create more jobs and help us construct a more modern state.”

Santos and Peres also signed an agreement concerning air service that is to facilitate commerce traffic between the two countries. The presidents separately agreed upon terms for exchange of scientific and technological goods.

Colombian FTAs have been met with widespread dissent in the past. Protests erupted in May against FTA measures that have all but destroyed the country’s domestic potato production.

Earlier this year, Senator Gloria Inés Ramírez said that the Colombian government has continuously failed in its agrarian management policies–especially in upholding free trade agreements, to the detriment of local agriculture producers.

Along with other FTA critics, Ramírez claims that Colombia’s small farming sectors are blatantly harmed by such measures and said, “If there is no public policy that allows us to produce in conditions of equality, they cannot come and tell us that they are going to impose a new free trade agreement,” in response to today’s accord.

Bilateral commerce between the Colombia and Israel currently amounts to about $US700m annually, with Colombian exports comprising about 78% of total trade.

The Colombian-United States Free Trade Agreement (FTA) came into effect at midnight last night, after US president Barack Obama signed the pact yesterday.

Colombian businesses commemorated the agreement with a celebration in Cartagena this morning by sending off of the first US-bound containers, including 4,200 boxes of flowers by plane to Miami. A shipment of textiles and apparel is expected to arrive on US soil in eight days.

“FTA will be a formula for growth [...] as it contributes to growth through the elimination of obstacles and uncertainties,” said Trade minister Sergio Diaz-Granados. It will see Colombian-US trade incur minimal, if not non-existant, import/export tariffs.

Hernando José Gómez, who is the appointed ‘FTA czar’, responsible for the legal and commercial management of the pact, told Colombian daily, The Spectator, that FTA is expected to increase domestic exports to the United States by 35-40% in the next year. It is also thought to generate US$3 billion annually for the South American country.

The FTA was signed in 2006, but was not brought before US congress until last year. Obama pushed the treaty forward at this year’s Summit of the Americas, which took place in Colombia during April. US president Barak Obama announced that the agreement would in fact be implemented after years of stalling, and put into place today.

Problems which have arisen with the agreement has taken six years to put into practice, due to a number of problems, such as Colombia’s poor track record with worker’s rights.

Labour unions complain that the FTA still ignores these human rights abuses, as Colombia reportedly has the highest number of trade union deaths in the world.