The Petro Government would be studying the possibility of suspending coal exports to Israel, according to sources from the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism.
These same sources assured SEMANA that, if this measure were to materialize, it would have to be taken through a decree.
On May 1, Petro announced, in Bolívar Square, that his Government was breaking diplomatic relations with Israel. This would be the first visible measure that the House of Nariño would adopt.
This Wednesday there was an emergency committee in the Ministry to finalize details of this decision before President Petro’s trip to Switzerland.
According to Fenalcarbón data from the beginning of the year, Colombia is among the top exporters of thermal coal, after Indonesia, Australia, South Africa and Russia. With nearly 54.5 million tonnes (MT) exported, demand for thermal coal increased in most destination countries, including India, Japan, South Korea, Turkey and Morocco. This, in the context of a market where global demand was around 8.5 billion tons, with global exports that for the first time exceeded one billion tons, a growth of 6.6% compared to 2022, the analysis concluded.
By 2023, thermal coal It recorded exports in volume of 54.5 million tons, which represented an increase of 0.1%, for a value of 7,644.6 million dollars. It is the second export product, representing 15% of the country’s foreign sales. For his part, the metallurgical coal, key in industrial processes such as steel, exported in volume 2 million tons, with an increase of 4.3%, while in value it reached a figure that exceeded 370 million dollars. Finally, the coke It had exports in volume of 3.9 million tons (a drop of 9.3%), worth 1,110.1 million dollars. It is the fifth Colombian export product, but Colombia’s first industrial product abroad, says the Fenalcarbón report.
The situation
While this decision is finalized, For a few months now, the Government has been preparing a portfolio of measures in the mining sector that have generated tension. There are three decisions that the Government has in progress. The first is a decree of the Ministry of the Environment (044), which establishes criteria for declaring and delimiting reserves of temporary natural resources within the framework of mining-environmental planning. This is a decree that empowers the Ministry of the Environment to decree temporary reserve areas with a duration of 10 years, so that, during that time, studies are carried out to know if in that area there should be an environmental protection area. In this case, it is worrying that there is regulation by decree, without going through Congress and without the effective participation of interest groups. The union is already analyzing whether it will file any appeal for review before the Council of State.
The other two initiatives are bills: one, the creation of Ecominerales, an industrial and commercial company of the State that will be in charge of the administration, management and disposal of reversionary assets for mining titles, accompaniment to the legalization programs and mining formalization, marketing, exploration and extraction of strategic minerals.
And the second, the new Mining Law that reforms the Mining Code and which among its most relevant slogans is the prohibition of contracting the exploration and exploitation of thermal coal.
In principle, the two projects were one with a structural reform of 238 articles that, later, the government decided to divide into two independent bills. One of 219 articles that corresponds to the new Mining Law, which will be processed by the fifth commissions of Congress, and another of 19 articles for the creation of a state mining company (Ecominerales) that is already being processed in the first constitutional commissions.
