Brussels (dpa) – European Union governments said Friday they were ready to sign a free trade agreement with Colombia and Peru that could be worth up to 500 million euros (658.5 million dollars) a year in scrapped duties. “This is considerable,” EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gught told reporters in Brussels. He spoke after the bloc's trade ministers reached a “political agreement” on signing up to the multi-party deal. However, the EU's signature is conditional upon the two South American countries making progress towards granting geographical protection to certain EU produce, De Gucht warned. Such protections dictate, for example, which parts of France are allowed to label their cheese as brie and which parts of Italy can refer to its cheese as Parmesan. The trade deal would liberalize services markets; open up the public procurement sector; and give the EU the same level of access to Peru and Colombia enjoyed by the United States, a statement from the Brussels-based bloc said. It would also include clauses on environmental protection and labor rights. Ecuador and Bolivia, which are members of the Andean Community with Peru and Colombia, are welcome to join the agreement, the EU statement added. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/NrfEL Tags: Colombia, EU, Free Trade, Peru Section: Business, Europe, Latest News, South America
