The Pacific Alliance trade group will explore whether to create a single passport for its four member nations in a bid to encourage tourism and trade across the world, Colombia’s migration director said Thursday.
The alliance, which comprises Colombia, Chile, Mexico and Peru and was formed in April 2011, has already abolished transit visas for the countries’ more than 230 million inhabitants.
Alliance members are among the keenest proponents of free trade in the Americas and have backed Mexico after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement and tightened immigration controls.
“One of the instructions, the commitments you want to achieve in the development of this great Pacific Alliance, is the ease of migratory mobility,” Christian Kruger, head of Colombia’s migration agency, told reporters at the Pacific Alliance summit in Cali.
Such a move would require an improvement in cross-border information to maintain security and prevent crime, he said.
A single passport would allow Colombians, Chileans, Mexicans and Peruvians to travel without a visa to other countries that enter the trade block.
Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Canada are expected to join as associate members during the summit in Colombia.
The integration agreement, which promotes the free movement of goods, services, capital and people, has bolstered the flow of people between the four countries in areas like tourism, Kruger said.
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