31 May 2006
United States Working To Expand Trade in Western Hemisphere
USTR's Eissenstat hails strong spirit of free trade in Latin America
Washington -- The United States continues to support the creation of a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and is working to achieve this goal partly through the negotiation of subregional and bilateral trade agreements in the Western Hemisphere, says Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for the Americas Everett Eissenstat.
In a May 31 webchat hosted by the U.S. State Department's Bureau of International Information Programs (IIP), Eissenstat addressed an array of hemispheric trade issues, including efforts to advance the creation of an FTAA.
Eissenstat said that at the 2005 Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Argentina, the vast majority of hemispheric leaders reaffirmed their commitment to crafting an FTAA and to continue discussions to this end in 2006. He observed that United States currently is participating in consultations with its regional counterparts on the FTAA and remains committed to the FTAA process.
"We are eager to discuss our path forward on the FTAA with all of our regional partners," Eissenstat said. "There are challenges that remain, and we believe that continuing a dialogue is important to working through those challenges."
While the United States is engaged in FTAA consultations, it also is working to advance the hemispheric trade agenda via subregional and bilateral trade accords, Eissenstat added.
"We have continued to work toward the FTAA by completing an FTA [free-trade agreement] with Chile, the CAFTA-DR, and [by] recently concluding negotiations with Peru and Colombia," he said. "The spirit of free trade is very strong among these partners of the Western Hemisphere, and we all recognize it is in our nations' interests to advance the hemisphere-wide trade agenda."
Apart from the aforementioned hemispheric partners, the United States also is working with Panama to expand regional trade. Eissenstat said the United States and Panama began free-trade talks in 2004 and will need to address a few remaining issues relating to agriculture market access and sanitary and phytosanitary (food safety) measures before these talks are concluded.
"An FTA with Panama is an important next step in our long history of close ties and a strong economic partnership," he said. "We believe the U.S. Congress will support a strong bilateral trade agreement between the U.S. and Panama."
With regard to implementation of the CAFTA-DR signed by President Bush in August 2005, Eissenstat said that the United States has been working with its CAFTA-DR partners intensively to review the status of their implementation efforts.
"We are working very hard to achieve entry-into-force for all of our CAFTA-DR partners at the earliest possible date," he said. "The United States would like to see the benefits of the agreement accrue to all signatory countries as soon as possible."
Costa Rica is the only CAFTA-DR participant that has not yet ratified the accord, but the USTR official expressed optimism that the United States will be able to work with the Costa Rican government to ensure entry into force by December.
A transcript of Eissenstat’s discussion and information on upcoming webchats are available on the USINFO Webchat Station.
For information on U.S. trade policy in the region, see Regional Trade.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
