Panama sees it “unfair” not to renegotiate the trade promotion treaty with the US

Panama City, 14 Mar The Government of Panama sees it “unfair” that the US does not agree to renegotiate the Trade Promotion Agreement (TPC) in force since 2012, whose allowances will affect the production of basic foods such as rice or poultry meat. “We consider that part of the US government unfair because it does not see strategic, political and social relations,” Panama's Minister of Agricultural Development Augusto Valderrama told reporters on Monday. Panama asked the United States to “review and renegotiate” several points of the TPC that “directly affect the future of various sensitive areas of Panamanian production, such as rice, dairy products, pork and poultry meat, among others,” the Ministry of Agricultural Development (Mida) said last Friday in a statement. That position of Panama was expressed by Valderrama to an official US mission that visited the country, led by the assistant to the US Trade Representative for Agricultural Affairs and Commodity Policy, Julie Callahan, according to official information. But the chargé d'affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Panama, Stewart Tuttle, said in an interview with local media that the TPC “is up and running” and that his government does not intend to renegotiate it. “Almost all Panamanian products have entered (the US) tax-free for the past 10 years,” Tuttle added. Valderrama said on Monday that Panama considers that the US “has to do with” bilateral “relations over selling rice or onions, it has to do with stability.” “What we want with the US (...) is for it to see us with a broader view of Latin America, and not just as a buyer of onions, rice and milk,” he urged. The minister pointed out that there are other countries interested in negotiating commercially with Panama, and clarified that he does not seek to “fight” with the US but to “raise awareness”. The TPC was signed between Panama and the US in 2007 and entered into force in 2012, immediately eliminating tariffs on more than 87% of U.S. exports of industrial and consumer goods to Panama, while the rest would be phased out over a decade, according to official information. The US is Panama's main trading partner: it is the destination for more than 18% of Panamanian exports and the supplier of more than 24% of goods arriving in the Central American country, according to business data for 2019. CHIEF adl/gf/lll