Trade Agreement

BENEFITS OF THE U.S.-COLOMBIA TRADE PROMOTION AGREEMENT: MORE AMERICAN EXPORTS, MORE AMERICAN JOBS

Approval of the U.S.–Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement (TPA) will support more American jobs, increase U.S. exports, and enhance U.S. competitiveness: • Colombia’s economy is the third largest in Central and South America. This comprehensive trade agreement will eliminate tariffs and other barriers to U.S. exports, promote economic growth, and expand trade between our two countries. U.S. goods exports to Colombia in 2010 were $12.0 billion. The International Trade Commission (ITC) has estimated that the tariff reductions in the Agreement will expand exports of U.S. goods alone by more than $1.1 billion, and support thousands of additional American jobs. The ITC also projected that the Agreement will increase U.S. GDP by $2.5 billion. The Agreement will provide significant new access to Colombia’s $134 billion services market, supporting increased opportunities for U.S. service providers. Our economies are largely complementary in terms of the goods we ship each other. For example, Colombia is a large importer of grains from the U.S. while it exports a number of tropical fruits to our country. In addition, U.S. cotton, yarn and fabric exports to Colombia are used in many apparel items that Colombia exports to the United States.

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The Agreement will remove significant barriers to U.S. goods from entering Colombia’s market: • Over 80 percent of U.S. exports of consumer and industrial products to Colombia will become duty free immediately, with remaining tariffs phased out over 10 years. With average tariffs on U.S. industrial exports ranging from 7.4 to 14.6 percent, this will substantially increase U.S. exports. Key U.S. exports will gain immediate duty-free access to Colombia, including almost all products in these sectors: agriculture and construction equipment, aircraft and parts, auto parts, fertilizers and agro-chemicals, information technology...