CARACAS, Friday October 30, 2009 | Update
Economy
Colombia filed on Monday a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) over Venezuela measures affecting exports of agricultural products, which represents 17 percent of sales of the South American country. The complaint will worsen the fragile relations between the two countries.
Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez ordered to "reduce to zero" binational trade, which in 2008 reached a record high of USD 7 billion, to protest against the military agreement signed between Bogotá and Washington allowing access of US military troops to Colombian bases.
Colombia argued that sanitary and phytosanitary measures affecting the sales of meat, eggs, chicken, coffee, cattle on the hoof, fruits and vegetables were neither reported timely through official channels nor notified to the WTO.
04:17 PM. Western Hemisphere. "Damned empire; I curse you one thousand times; some day you will be finished off and wrecked. I curse you one thousand times, empire." This is the least that President Hugo Chávez has uttered to refer to the US government. In urging the Bolivarian Armed Forces to prepare for war, he said that a US raid on Venezuela through Colombia would trigger and spread over the region "the 100-year war."