Colombia to cancel free trade deal with Israel, “reform” treaty with US [Adriaan Alsema | SEP 30 2025 | colombiareports.com]

(Image: President’s Office)

Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro said Monday that his government will end its free trade agreement with Israel and seeks to revise the one with the United States.

Petro made the announcement during a cabinet meeting amid rapidly deteriorating tensions with its former partners over Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, which is largely sponsored by the US. The announcement came shortly after an open letter by the Colombo-American Chamber of Commerce, which said that 500 businessmen distanced themselves from the president’s opposition to the genocide.

According to Petro, the “pro-gringo” businessmen failed to understand that life comes before trade.

“Trade is not more important than life, as the 500 pro-gringo businessmen, who are not Colombian or do not appear to be, would have us believe. They are more interested in exporting trinkets to the United States than in preserving life on the planet.” – President Gustavo Petro

“We are not the kind of business that bows down to greed and that means we will also reform the FTA and that means we will no longer have an FTA,” said the president.

Consequently, “the coal companies that export [to Israel] must fold or sell their concessions,” said Petro.

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Apart from ending the free trade deal with Israel and seeking changes in the treaty with the US, Petro ordered the ministers of trade and transport, to prioritize road infrastructure projects that would allow increased trade with the rest of South America.

“We had the most powerful international trade agreement with the Andean Pact. And now the political satraps come out and say that it is with the United States. When was that the case? Our industrial goods were sold to Venezuela and Ecuador. There was always food trade in the Andean Pact. Why did we abandon the Andean Pact? To prioritize a free trade agreement with the United States that hurts us.” – President Gustavo Petro

The president additionally ordered his foreign minister, Rosa Villavicencio, to replace the personnel at the Colombian embassy to Beijing, claiming that his attempts to strengthen ties with China were being sabotaged.

The government began improving trade relations with China earlier this year in response to an apparent trade war on the rest of the world declared by Trump after taking office.^[1]