Top US commercial officer scopes out FTA/FTZ opportunities for US companies Datamyne blog anchor Bill Armbruster conducted an extensive e-mail interview with Daniel T. Crocker, senior commercial officer with the US Embassy in Panama, earlier this month. Besides the...
Still Waiting in the Wings
KORUS kicks in as Colombia, Panama FTAs cool their heels by Bill Armbruster, blog anchor The Korean-US free trade agreement enters into force tomorrow, March 15. As I wrote here last month, the progress of FTAs is stately indeed: After President Obama signed the...
“From Tierra del Fuego to Tijuana”
FTAs open markets to US exporters From the Washington Post: The long delayed free trade deals with South Korea, Colombia and Panama “give US an economic boost.” Since US markets were already open to Colombia, the big change under the new FTA is that Colombian markets...
Not a Party
Countries left out of FTAs lose out on trade Proponents of the free trade agreements awaiting Congressional approval often argue their case by pointing to the boost FTAs will give to US exports. So, for instance, the US Department of Agriculture projects the US-Panama...
Trade Beef
US cattleman urges action on FTAs as competitors vie for overseas markets The US agricultural sector pressed its case for ratification of pending free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea before the US House of Representatives Committee on...
Handy Tool
Look up tariffs for imports and exports between free-trade partners online The International Trade Administration (ITA) has a new online tool that’s handy for looking up tariff information on 85% of the goods going to 20 country markets with which the US has...
PanaMAX (or mini) Prospects?
A bigger canal still faces competition from the Suez, rail by Bill Armbruster, blog anchor The Panama Canal will become a more viable option for trade between Asia and the eastern U.S. after the waterway’s expansion is completed in 2014, but I question whether it will...
The Latin American Decade
LATAM may be on course for growth, but diversification is needed Writing in the Miami Herald earlier this month, Andres Oppenheimer asks whether 2011 will be the dawn of the “Latin American decade” – as a recent Standard & Poor’s webcast argues [you can access a...
An End to the 16-Year Banana War?
Pending trade deal gives an edge to Latin America in the EU Well-intentioned it may have been, but the EU’s 1993 decision to slap tariffs on bananas from Latin America while allowing bananas from African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries to enter its markets...
FTAs: Good or Bad?
Americans may have soured on free trade, but isn’t it in their best interests? by Peter Quinter, guest columnist I am still troubled by the Wall Street Journal lead article on October 4, 2010, with the headline “Recession-Weary Americans Sour on Free Trade.” I asked...