The Government of Panama requested this Wednesday to the United States, the review of the terms and conditions of the calendar of the Trade Promotion Agreement (TPC), in force since 2012.
This request was made by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Erika Mouynes, through the United States Embassy after delivering two official notes. The documents were received by the Chargé d’Affaires of the United States embassy, Stewart Tuttle, who called a meeting in which the Minister of Commerce and Industry, Ramón Martínez, and the head of Agricultural Development, Augusto Valderrama, also participated.
According to the agricultural producer, Augusto Reyes Jiménez, the eight items that are part of the TPC between our country and the United States were “badly negotiated.”
He considered that this request made by the government has been congratulated, because it must be a priority to safeguard technical standards and guarantee quality products to everything national.
“Given the level of trade openness and the degree of maturation reached to date under the tariff reduction schedule that the TPC provides for some sensitive items, such as rice, milk, cheese, chicken meat and beef pork, an opening that will accelerate in the coming years, the Ministries of Agricultural Development and Commerce and Industries, which have been in charge of the negotiations on behalf of Panama, consider it necessary to review the terms and conditions of that calendar, so that it be allowed to promote new trade conditions for these sensitive items, without affecting Panamanian agricultural production and the generation of employment that these items represent for our economy, mainly in rural areas of the country”, states the official letter.
Similarly, the National Government through the documents formally requested “the specific review of the terms and conditions of the Tariff Elimination Program agreed in the TPC for certain sensitive agricultural products for Panama, specifically, rice, milk and dairy products, chicken meat and pork. In this way it will be possible to identify solutions that reduce the concerns of these sectors, which consider that their national production will be negatively affected”.
