While in Chile exporting a container costs USD 980 and in Peru USD 890, in Colombia this figure rises to USD 2,255. This shows that logistics costs are still a major sticking point cross country trade for.
For Analdex president, Javier Diaz, this is a concern because, in his opinion, instead of moving up, the country is going back in this area.
"We have not made progress because there is no trade facilitation. The attitude of the authorities is of repression. We have not advanced in finishing downtime, in inspections," said the union leader.
One of the challenges is to lower those high logistics costs, which make it untenable to advance in competitiveness. Compared to 2012, the cost to export a container goes slightly from USD 2,270 to USD 2,255, while the cost of imports stood at USD 2,830.
The number of documents needed to export to Colombia is 5, for Chile 6, for Mexico and Peru 5 to 6. While in Colombia it takes 14 days to export and 13 to import, Chile does in 15 and 12 days respectively; Mexico in 12 days for the two activities, and Peru in 12 and 17 days respectively.
Source: LA REPÚBLICA