The President of the Republic, Laurentino Cortizo Cohen, took advantage of the visit of the Secretaries of State and National Security of the United States of America Antony Blinken and Alejandro Mayorkas, respectively, to invite the North American country to establish a dialogue mechanism with Panama, in reference to the Trade Promotion Treaty in force.
During the meeting with the US officials, Cortizo assured that as strategic partners they have already known how to find solutions and coincidences in a negotiated way in the past.
As explained at the meeting, the Panamanian interest is to review the current tariff reduction calendar for products such as rice, milk, cheese and chicken and pork meat with a special impact on the national economy. with whom he reviewed outstanding issues of the bilateral agenda in the political, commercial and migration spheres.
During the audience, the President highlighted the weight of the relationship with the United States, in its capacity as strategic ally, first commercial partner and second country with the largest investment in Panama.
Likewise, he underscored the advances of the Alliance for Development in Democracy (ADD), which Panama integrates together with the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica, and the support of the United States before the proposal to work together and specify actions for socioeconomic development, strengthening trade and investment flows and the participation of US companies in supply chains.
In the almost hour-long meeting, they reviewed outstanding issues on the bilateral agenda in the political, commercial and migration spheres. There, the highest Panamanian authority thanked the US for its support in managing the pandemic and shared the country’s positive health indices, now focused on establishing strategic alliances for the post-Covid-19 recovery and development process.
President Cortizo Cohen confirmed Panama’s participation, at the highest level, in the IX Summit of the Americas, to be held in June in Los Angeles, California (USA) and the country’s commitment to strengthening the rights humans in the region.
The Panamanian president took advantage of the meeting to recall the important efforts that this administration dedicates to the conservation of the environment and the fight against climate change, incorporating diplomatic management to the platform of the Eastern Tropical Pacific Marine Corridor (CMAR), whose presidency assumes this week Panama, a carbon-negative country and 30×30 leader, which will also host the next “Our Ocean” Conference, in March 2023.
President Cortizo Cohen emphasized that Panama and the United States must strengthen environmental cooperation ties to address the climate emergency and reinforce global mitigation strategies.
Secretary Blinken is in Panama to participate today and tomorrow in the Ministerial Meeting on Migration that continues the first conversation on the subject proposed by Foreign Minister Erika Mouynes in August last year, on that occasion virtually.
Panama has been the first country to promote a multilateral approach with international support for the challenges caused by the growing mixed flows of human mobility, both extra-regional and intra-regional.
President Cortizo Cohen was accompanied by the Vice President and Minister of the Presidency, José Gabriel Carrizo Jaén, the Foreign Minister, Erika Mouynes; the ministers Juan Manuel Pino, of Security; Janaina Tewaney, from Government; Ramón Martínez, from Commerce and Industries; Augusto Valderrama, from Agricultural Development and Héctor Alexander, from Economy and Finance; and Saleh Asvat, National Secretary of Public-Pri Partnership
