COLOMBIA, BOLIVIA PRESS TRADE TIES

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) - The presidents of Bolivia and Colombia agreed
Monday to press nations that are the major consumers of illicit drugs
to improve trade ties with countries trying to wean themselves from
the drug trade.

"What we are clearly saying is that without shared responsibility by
consuming countries, there is little we can do," said Colombian
President Andres Pastrana, who met with his Bolivian counterpart,
Jorge Quiroga, in La Paz.

"We are asking that these consuming and developed nations open their
doors to us and offer more possibilities for our products," he said.

He was referring to the 1991 Andean Trade Preferences Act, which
expires in December and is intended to strengthen legal alternatives
to drug production in Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru, the Andean
region that produces almost all the world's cocaine and a significant
share of the heroin sold on U.S. streets.

The act gives duty-free status to Andean exports to the United States
such as flowers, oil, minerals, coffee and bananas. Leaders of the
Andean nations want the trade perks extended beyond December and
their coverage expanded to other products including textiles, leather
products and tuna.

Pastrana, who returns to Colombia Tuesday, said his nation can learn
from Bolivia's experience in eradicating coca, the base ingredient
for cocaine.

Under its U.S.-backed Dignity Plan, Bolivia wiped out 106,000 acres
of coca in the Chapare, once one of the world's largest coca-growing
areas. Quiroga, who became Bolivia's president early this month after
Hugo Banzer resigned the presidency a year because of cancer,
expressed support for the U.S.-sponsored Plan Colombia to halt drug
trafficking.

Though many in other Andean nations fear Plan Colombia will cause
traffickers and guerillas to spill over Colombia's borders and into
their countries, Quiroga argued that Colombia "can't be quarantined."