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Colombia Relations with Other Nations
Bilateral relations with nations outside the Western
Hemisphere
were almost solely based on trade and other economic
dealings.
Largely as a result of imports from Colombia by the
Federal
Republic of Germany (West Germany), European Economic
Community
countries accounted for about a quarter of Colombia's
primary
export markets in 1985. Colombia's relations with West
European
countries in the late 1980s continued to be mainly
pragmatic and
trade oriented. Spain, though not a major importer of
Colombian
goods, continued to maintain cultural and historic ties
with
Colombia. The influence of France has been second only to
that of
Spain on Colombia's European-oriented culture. Portugal's
relations
with Colombia also were important because of the
similarity of the
goods that Portugal and its former African colonies
produced.
Colombia also maintained trade relations with Asian
countries,
especially Japan, which accounted for 4 percent of
Colombia's
exports and 10.4 percent of its imports in 1985. In
September 1987,
Barco met with President Chun Doo Hwan of the Republic of
Korea
(South Korea) and made public a communiqué concerning
economic and
technological exchange agreements, including a commitment
to expand
trade in natural resources.
Colombia's relations with Israel were strengthened by a
trade
accord signed by the two countries in April 1988 in which
Israel
agreed to purchase 2 million tons of Colombian coal during
the
1988-91 period. In exchange, Colombia committed itself to
buying
fourteen Israeli-made Kfir combat jets costing US$60
million. The
United States Department of State unofficially approved
the sale of
the Kfir (jets powered with American-made engines) in
1987.
Data as of December 1988
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