The US urged Panama to pay attention to the benefits of the TPC

He the US government he encouraged Panama to take advantage of the advantages it offers Bilateral Trade Promotion Agreement (TPC), in response to the Central American country’s repeated request to review the dates of tax breaks for products such as beef and chicken, rice and some dairy products.

TheUS Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Alexis Taylor, who is in Panama on a mission to explore business opportunities in that country and Central America, addressed the issue Wednesday and said that since he arrived in the capital a few days ago, he had been asked if this issue of TPC’s magazine was “a lot of discussion.” with his Panamanian counterpart.

Taylor responded that he “knows very well” what is involved in negotiating a trade agreement that entangles two countries, such as the TPC between the United States and Panama, which entails, he said, “sacrifice” from both countries.

In this regard, he stated that he understood the “sensitivity of certain products from the Panamanian perspective”, but felt that “the beginning of recognizing these very specific issues could end up invalidating the entire economic foundation on which this agreement is based”.

“This agreement is much broader and includes much more than just agriculture, and it has allowed the United States to be the largest foreign investor in Panama, with a total of $13,000 million in U.S. investment coming to Panama since it was signed,” Taylor said.

The Under Secretary of Agriculture went further and said that attention must be paid to the opportunities that the TPC offers to Panamanian producers, for whom there is “additional space” to take advantage of agricultural exports to the US.

Currently, he added, out of a total of 110 tariff-free product lines, “Panama exports (to the United States) only 10 or less than 10 of those 110 tariff lines.”

In March 2022. Government of Panama He formally asked the United States to review the terms and conditions of the TPC tax cut schedule to “protect local production of rice, milk and its derivatives, and chicken and pork.”

He The TPC was signed between Panama and the USA in 2007 and took effect in 2012, immediately eliminating tariffs on more than 87% of US industrial and consumer goods exports to Panama, while the remainder would be phased out over a decade, according to official information.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Panama sent official notes addressed to Thomas Vilsack, US Secretary of Agriculture, and Katherine Tai, Trade Representativeexpressing the intention of the Panamanian government “to invoke the adjustment mechanisms provided for in the Treaty, in relation to items of special social or sensitive interest, such as rice, milk and its derivatives and chicken and pork”.

But at that time the chargé d’affaires US Embassy in Panama, Stewart Tuttle, In an interview with local media, he assured that the TPC is “in progress” and that his government does not intend to renegotiate it.

This Tuesday, Panama’s Minister of Agricultural Development, Augusto Valderrama, clarified that Panama is not seeking “a renegotiation of the treaty,” but “within the agreement” to seek safeguards, some quotas that can help, not hinder, U.S. trade with Panama, but to arrange it so that our producers can coexist.

Valderrama emphasized that pork and beef, some dairy products and rice “represent more than 52 percent of agricultural GDP.”