The following is from the 20 November 2012 edition of American Shipper.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on Monday hosted the first meeting of the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Commission (FTC), the body responsible for supervising the implementation of the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement and resolving issues that arise.
The FTC meeting comes six months after the May 15 entry into force of the agreement. The two sides concluded that operation of the agreement has gone smoothly and is already bringing benefits to both countries. According to U.S. government statistics, U.S. exports to Colombia from May to September were over 20 percent higher than for the corresponding period last year.
“All indications are that the agreement is off to a successful start. The hard work of both our teams to prepare for entry into force appears to have paid off, as our respective exporters have begun to take advantage of the new opportunities the agreement provides,” said U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk in a statement.
At the FTC meeting the governments decided to consider tariff acceleration and establish timeframes to establish the dispute settlement mechanism and updating the rules of origin. The parties also monitored fulfillment of commitments with a post-entry into force deadline and reviewed the work of the committees that recently met to date under the agreement, namely technical barriers to trade, agriculture, and sanitary and phytosanitary measures.
In addition, the United States and Colombia discussed the importance of ensuring that the Colombian Action Plan Related to Labor Rights continues to be fully implemented.