Bolivia and Columbia demand preferential trade terms
The leaders of Bolivia and Colombia have made called for the US and other western countries to extend duty-free status to products such as textiles and leather goods in order to divert their economies from illicit drug production.
Colombian president Andres Pastrana said: "We are asking that these consuming and developed nations open their doors to us and offer more possibilities for our products,"
The demands come as the US Andean Trade Preferences Act nears the end of its 10 year term. It was designed to encourage legal alternatives to drug production in South American countries by giving duty-free access to the US market for flowers, oil, minerals, coffee and bananas. Now the Andean region wants an extension to the act in terms of both its time-scale and product eligibility.
Mr Pastrana said that those countries that created demand for drugs needed to do more to help: "without shared responsibility by [drug] consuming countries, there is little we can do," he said.
