USTR advances on Latin free trade negotiations
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick Wednesday said the United States would begin free trade talks next year with the Andean nations of Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and a separate free trade agreement with Panama.
Zoellick, who is in Miami as part of Free Trade Area of the Americas meetings today and Friday, also said the United States is moving toward starting free trade talks with the Dominican Republic in January.
The Bush administration plans to begin negotiations with the Andean nations in the second quarter of 2004, said Zoellick, during a press conference with other Andean trade ministers. Talks will take place initially in Colombia and Peru and later with Bolivia and Ecuador.
Trade between the United States and these Andean countries is currently conducted under the Andean Trade Preferences Act, which has been renewed and expanded through 2006.
The four Andean nations have a combined population of 93 million people and represented about $7 billion in U.S. exports in 2002, the USTR said.
The USTR said the U.S.-Andean free trade agreement would not undercut FTAA negotiations. Zoellick said the United States is taking different tracks at promoting hemispheric trade and integration, including the U.S.-Central America Free Trade Agreement and talks with Panama and the Dominican Republic.
'We want to try to expand the benefits of trade hemispherically, but we also have to customize for special circumstance,' he said.
Negotiations on a free trade pact with Panama are also expected to start in the second quarter, Zoellick said. Following a meeting Wednesday with Panama President Mireya Moscoso and Trade Minister Joaquin Jacome, Zoellick said he formally notified Congress of the Bush administration's intentions.
'Panama serves as an important financial and commercial crossroads in the Western Hemisphere and has one of the most open economies in the region,' Zoellick wrote in his letter of notice to congressional leaders.
In 2002 bilateral U.S./Panama trade totaled $1.7 billion, as U.S. exports accounted for $1.4 billion of that amount. Nearly half of Panama's imports come from the United States, and the U.S. holds about $25 billion in foreign direct investment in Panama.
Zoellick, in a busy day in Miami, where he and trade ministers from 34 countries are gathering for the FTAA meetings, also met with five Central America trade ministers in advance of the final round of negotiations for the U.S.-Central America Free Trade Agreement Dec. 8 in Washington.
The United States and Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua began negotiations in January on CAFTA, and have held eight rounds of talks, one in each Central America countries, as well as in Cincinnati, New Orleans and Houston.
Trade between the United States and the five Central America countries totals nearly $25 billion, including $11.5 billion in exports expected in 2003. U.S. imports from Central America will total about $13 billion in 2003, of which 74 percent enter duty-free under the Caribbean Basin Initiative and Generalized System of Preference Programs.
Meanwhile, Zoellick said the Dominican Republic will host the first formal negotiating round in January for a free trade agreement between the two countries.
The Dominican Republic is the largest economy of the Caribbean Basin region, and receives $4.3 billion in U.S. exports annually and about $1.4 billion in U.S. investment.