Renegotiation of Panama-US trade deal ruled out
Stewart Tuttle, the charge d’affaires of the United States Embassy in Panama, stated that his country does not plan to “renegotiate” the trade promotion treaty it signed with this country.
According to Tuttle, the issue of renegotiation is not on the table and he emphasized that the United States has not received a formal request from Panama to renegotiate that agreement. “Besides, we don’t think it’s a fit.”
Tuttle said that the agreement “is underway” and that almost all Panamanian products have entered the United States without taxes during the last 10 years.
He added that the idea of the United States is to focus on the implementation of the trade agreement. “We have reached a point where last year Panama sent $90 million in products to the United States.
A day after the diplomat’s statements in Telemetro Reporta, the Minister of Agricultural Development, Augusto Valderrama, said that Panama’s position regarding the trade promotion agreement (TPC) is that the United States must “review and renegotiate it” so that it does not affect the future of production and the Panamanian economy.
Valderrama said that Panama has a “strategic and important” partner in the United States, so there is a Panamanian interest in continuing to develop a relationship in the commercial aspect.
He added that Panama has maintained the position declared by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Erika Mouynes, of the need to review and renegotiate various issues of the treaty.
He highlighted the need to review these issues in the treaty, since once “the reductions are completed, these products will be seriously affected” by the imports that will come from the United States.
