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During the last four decades, Deloitte has been committed with Colombia and its people, offering services in Bogotá, Medellín, Cali and Barranquilla from where they attend other cities. With more than 800 employees, they are ready to help clients to build successful companies, able to overcome the difficult economic situation through the constant development of new services in four professional areas and in all the activities of the industry.
Recently, Erwin Blanco, the Attorney and Manager of Legal Services, Customs, and International Trade in Deloitte, Colombia accepted Webport Global’s invitation to discuss the business climate in Colombia. The following interview has been translated from Spanish to English.
Anita Bartholomew:
Are your clients primarily in Colombia or are they foreign businesses wishing to do business in Colombia?
Erwin Blanco:
Our clients are mostly in Colombia, but we are interested in having more clients from the United States and around the world that are interested in developing business here in Colombia.
Anita Bartholomew:
Do you work with a lot of small to medium size enterprises or do you work primarily with larger firms?
Erwin Blanco:
I work with both SMEs and large companies.
Anita Bartholomew:
What services do your clients generally want to import or export?
Erwin Blanco:
Basically, it's the consultancy about making investments here in Colombia. We then provide advice and guidance regarding regulations in customs, exchange, and international trade.
Anita Bartholomew:
So you're helping mostly local companies deal with international trade issues?
Erwin Blanco:
Not all international trade issues. Also, international investments and exchange, here in Colombia and investments outside the country.
Anita Bartholomew:
When you work with international clients, what are some of the issues that they ask you to help with?
Erwin Blanco:
It's basically two big points. One of them is the tariff on goods and the other is the origin of rules, and if the product that they exporting fulfills the Colombia free trade agreement regulations.
Anita Bartholomew:
So, they're generally asking you about how to use the free trade agreements to their advantage.
Erwin Blanco:
Exactly. It's basically with the tariff and the origin rules.
Anita Bartholomew:
I understand that Colombia has a number of free trade agreements in place. How has that changed the business climate for people working with Colombia?
Erwin Blanco:
These free trade agreements are principles of changing the image of Colombia in front of the world. We have free trade agreement with the European Union and the United States. In past years, Colombia was a closed economy and now we are open to the world with access to many markets we didn't know. As I mentioned, European Union, Israel, Colombia, Canada and the United States.
Erwin Blanco:
So that's basically the big change of these free trade agreements.
Anita Bartholomew:
Even though you have free trade agreements in place, there might still be some obstacles that foreign businesses encounter, especially small to medium sized ones that they don't expect. Are there any obstacles or any issues that foreign businesses might not expect that come up in Columbia?
Erwin Blanco:
For small to medium enterprises, there is no obstacles here because we're looking for more investments from these small and medium companies. That's one of the principle objectives from the free trade agreement, at least with United States. We are looking for more small business, small and medium business here in Colombia.
Anita Bartholomew:
What else is important for small to medium size businesses to understand about working with partners in Colombia?
Erwin Blanco:
We have four points. First one is that Colombia is in a process of an industrial modernization and is trying to attract medium size companies that offer new technologies and that are interested in investing here. Another one is with the free trade agreement, we negotiated the commercial agency. This occurs when a business is not interested in having a company here, but can still establish a commercial agency that will be the representation here without having all the formalities. Also, if an investment agency working with the government in Colombia is promoting some kind of meetings between seller and buyer, partners in Colombia can connect the buyers and the sellers, in order to increase trade. In addition, in the origin rules in the free trade agreement, the government didn't establish a model to these origin certificates. So each authority can certify as they believe or as each considers as appropriate, the origin of determining goods. It's a formality, but often creates a better business relationship between the seller and the buyer and makes the custom process quicker.
Erwin Blanco:
Another benefit available in Colombia to SME’s are free zones companies and sellers, which are primarily industrial and commercial businesses. These businesses are inside a geographic area and have a lot of tax and customs benefits. These are opportunities that we promote to foreign and national investors.
| Product Model | Inside Diameter | Outside Diameter | Thickness |
| PCM222515E bearing | 22 | 25 | 15 |
| PCM202330B bearing | 20 | 23 | 30 |