Panamanian president Martin Torrijos was in Washington DC last week. His meetings included President George W. Bush, but also included key Congressional Democrat Charles Rangel and AFL-CIO representatives to gather support for the US-Panama FTA before the expiration of the President’s Trade Promotion Authority this summer.

Panama, along with Columbia and Peru, are seeking to preserve market access to the United States that had been given to them under the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (ATPDEA) (Columbia and Peru) and the Caribbean Basin Initiative (Panama) — both of which are set to expire.

Colombian, Panamanian and Peruvian exporters therefore see the FTAs as helping to guarantee permanent access to the U.S. market. The FTAs also help Latin America diversify their export offerings and reduce their dependency on only one or a few commodity items that fluctuate in prices from year to year, Bastian says. Case in point: Venezuela, which has a booming trade with the United States, but no FTA nor plans to negotiate one. Only one product category - oil and gas - accounted for 77 percent of all Venezuelan exports to the United States and with oil prices falling, trade may decline this and next year.

The Panama-US FTA contains provisions for higher IP standards, similar to CAFTA. More details on the USTR site. The full story is available at the Latin Business Chronicle.