Local authorities hold meetings with the different chambers, associations and unions to define some strategies that will be presented to the Government.
Tulcan
The reopening of the border crossings between Ecuador and Colombia announced for next Wednesday, December 1 by the leaders of both nations generates concern from several commercial sectors.
The local authorities hold meetings with the different productive chambers, associations and unions to define some strategies that will be presented to the national government.
Christian Benavides, mayor of Tulcán, considers that the authorization of the border crossing is too quick a decision that does not give time to organize in the locality.
The mayor began a round of meetings with local merchants in which they request measures to offset the impact that the reopening of the Rumichaca international bridge will generate.
Roger Estrada, president of the Centro Comercial Popular de Tulcán, a complex that houses more than 800 merchants, maintains that the presidential decision will benefit only Ipiales, Pasto and other cities in southern Colombia.
This artisan warns that once the binational pipeline is reopened, it will cause a large avalanche of Ecuadorian buyers who, taking advantage of the exchange rate differential between the dollar and the Colombian peso ($ 1 is worth 3,948 Colombian pesos) will pass through Tulcán, turning it into a city of passage, fleeing the dollars to the neighbor country.
Ecuador-Colombia Binational Cabinet will be held on December 17
Estrada calls for the entry of raw materials without taxes from Colombia, materials that are not available in the country to remedy the hard economic blow that is coming. The Tulcaneño mayor is concerned that only 46% of the Colombian population is vaccinated with second doses.
He adds that according to the Constitution, health guarantees the right of access to this service in a universal and free way and the sentinel hospital COVID-19 Luis Dávila runs the risk of collapsing, because patients from neighboring Colombian departments would come.
“The Government must apply compensatory mechanisms with government support,” proposes Benavides, who this Monday sent a document to President Guillermo Lasso in which they request an urgent meeting with the Minister of Production and Commerce to analyze compensation measures.
Among the demands are requesting the creation of VAT-free shopping days in Tulcán as decreed by the Government of Colombia in Ipiales to reactivate trade and requesting the reduction of a differentiated VAT at the borders to captivate buyers.
The Carchense authorities agree that southern Colombia managed to quench the pressures and mobilizations against the Colombian president, Iván Duque, with this decision endorsed by President Guillermo Lasso.
Guillermo Herrera, prefect of Carchi, who was part of a table organized by the Carchi Government, adds that they are going to ask the national Emergency Operations Committee (COE) that the reopening be programmed and gradual with the appropriate protocols.
“The sanitary element should be the first to be considered and the economic and commercial issue second,” emphasizes Herrera, who is concerned because the return of value added tax (VAT) to foreign buyers is foreseen in Ipiales, a measure that will be lapidary for local businesses.
For Prefect Herrera, a mirror or similar measure on VAT would be appropriate to avoid a major blow to the commercial sector of the capital of Carche.
Until then, the national COE prepares the protocol and the rules for the passage of people through the viaduct, Ipiales already has it ready, says Mayor Luis Fernando Villota.
On the other hand, for December 2, a meeting between the Ministers of Transportation and Public Works (MTOP) of both nations is announced in Tulcán to define the transit of trucks through the Rumichaca bridge and the other border crossings enabled in Sucumbíos and Esmeraldas.
These are the demands of the merchants and authorities of Carche requested to President Guillermo Lasso:
- Encourage tourism activities and promote the entire tourism, commercial and hotel sector
- Request the national COE to require a card with the two doses of vaccination upon entry or exit from both sides of the border (Rumichaca).
- An urgent meeting with the Minister of Production to channel a request via decree to the Government to lower the VAT for the tourism sector to 8% in the month of December.
- Control security and smuggling through illegal steps.
- Renew the cross-border commercial basket, among others. (I)
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