Free Zone continues amid crisis due to lack of competitiveness

In the Colon Free Zone (CFZ) nothing has changed since last year, as say the traders, since the transit through its streets you can see the signs indicating noticeable: it is sold or rented, reflecting the crisis continues.

According to the president of the Columbus Chamber of Commerce, Jose De La Rosa Lam, the issue of commercial emporium continue to be returned to their competitiveness.

He stressed that the adjustment in the payment of the annual fee as a key operating companies operating in the area of $5,000 to $2,500, does not solve the whole problem facing this area, as it continues the collection of some taxes reduces competitiveness.

This situation of lack of competitiveness has resulted in many companies have closed their operations in the Free Zone and have moved to other places. He said that today in the CFZ there are companies that have 20, 30, 5 or 7 employees and now have only one and held with open doors to see if they can recover their merchant accounts held abroad.

Lam said that currently the official number of companies that have closed is unknown, however, it said the total number of companies operating in the free trade area amounted to approximately 2,500 and 500 had closed its operation key.

Meanwhile, Severo Sousa, president of the Business Council Logistics (Coel) and president of the Association of Users of the Free Zone, said that expectations for the commercial emporium remain downward, much like the previous year, as the situation has not changed in general and unlikely to change any time soon.

According to figures from the Office of the Comptroller General of Colombia, the commercial movement in the free zone until last November it was more than $ 20,272 million, ie 10% less than recorded in 2014. This crisis in the CFZ comes amid the collapse of major markets such as Venezuela and Colombia.

Meanwhile, traders are waiting to meet with the authorities, among which, the Minister of Trade and Industry, Augusto Arosemena, in order to address the problems facing the FTA and together find a solution between the parties .

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La Zona Libre de Colón (ZLC) enfrenta desde hace tres años una baja en su movimiento comercial, dado el problema de la falta de pago por parte de empresarios de Venezuela y por el arancel impuesto por Colombia.

Varias empresas han cerrado operación en la zona franca, dado el bajo rendimiento de sus negocios.

En diciembre del año pasado, se aprobó por parte de la Junta Directiva de la ZLC, una rebaja de 50% en el pago de la tarifa anual en concepto de clave de operación de las empresas que operan en el área.