Essay “Free Trade Agreement (FTA): Advantages and Disadvantages”

Fabian Leonardo Rodríguez Neira

citizenship card: 1.049.636.314
Record number: 1413106

Dinier Arley Andica Suarez

Instructor

Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje – SENA

Technologist in International Negotiation
Duitama
2018
 CONTENT

Páge.
1. Essay on the free trade agreement in force between Colombia and the United States with its advantages
and disadvantages………………………………………………………………………………………..3-4
1. Essay on the free trade agreement in force between Colombia and the United States with its
advantages and disadvantages:

Let's start by explaining when the Free Trade Agreement between Colombia and the United
States was signed, this process was carried out in November 2006, in Washington and Colombia,
the Agreement was approved in the Congress of the Republic in June 2007 and one month later
the President of the Republic sanctioned Law 1143 that gave him life. In July 2008 the
Constitutional Court found it adjusted to the constitutional order, as well as the "Modifying
Protocol" of the same Agreement, signed in Washington in June 2009

It entered into force on May 15, 2012. This was established between the presidents of Colombia,
Juan Manuel Santos, and the US, Barack Obama, during the Summit of the Americas, in
Cartagena, where the corresponding exchange of notes between the two governments.
It must be emphasized that the free trade agreement with the United States appears today as the
best and most viable option for our country in the context of international integration
The FTA with the USA It is important for Colombia, because it allows Colombian entrepreneurs
to place their products under permanent privileged conditions in the largest market in the world
since the US has about 314 million consumers

In addition, this country is the main trading partner of Colombia and the increase in bilateral trade
will generate more employment and higher incomes and Colombian products have permanent
access and without barriers to markets in industrialized countries

We must not forget that countries similar to ours, such as Chile, Mexico, Peru and the Central
Americans, have already signed treaties with the United States. and we can not stay behind.

There are a total of 59 products of 350 new that conquered the North American market and have
been able to take advantage of the FTA.

The list highlights agricultural products such as vegetables and nuts; agroindustrial such as oil,
mineral water and industry cell phones and batteries; even the most curious: human organs for
osoterápico use as spinal gland, liver, among others.

The Ministry of Commerce assures that in the first five years of the FTA with the United States,
they have been positive since 8,700 different companies exported their products to that country.
In addition, something very important of this agreement is that before its implementation there
were only 5,670 products with tariff items and today there are more than 10.63, generating with
this stability and confidence since the tariff benefits no longer depend on the decisions of the
Congress.

Another important part is that more than 350 new products have entered the US market, some of
them are mushrooms, rolled products and toothpastes and tires. In the agricultural part, for
example, cape gooseberry, avocado and citrus fruits have very good possibilities in the future.

A concrete benefit of the FTA is that entrepreneurs can negotiate with a longer term, which
allows them to better plan and distribute resources, although it must be clear that the trade
balance with the United States has gone from positive to negative, due to the fall of world trade.
American commerce has many opportunities for the commercialization of cosmetics, confections,
girdles and underwear.

Although not everything is rosy, since there are certain disadvantages in this treaty, basically
because of the technological advance of the United States, in addition to its strong political
influence and we Colombians do not have enough tools to compete in commercial terms with the
American power, generating a treaty to some extent disadvantageous.

There are sectors included in the FTA that can not compete with the United States, especially in
agrarian matters, such as dairy products, poultry producers, as well as corn and rice producers.
Colombia does not count on the technological development of that country, here more industrial
infrastructure is needed to compete with the products originated there. Hence the affectation of
agriculture, since there is produced on a larger scale, with more technology and that makes
arriving at these products cheaper.

Then urgent measures would have to be put in place to prepare small producers against
international competition; otherwise, the crisis in the sector will gradually worsen as the tariff
reduction of sensitive products, such as the agricultural ones just mentioned, is made, increasing
the damage to peasant families. An analytical work has been carried out that concludes the
following: "The United States managed to impose its conditions in the negotiation in the FTA,
given that Colombia could not agree on differential treatment mechanisms that would allow
balancing or leveling the asymmetries that were presented between the parties. This phenomenon
determined in advance the results of the negotiation and ultimately the results of the agreement
itself, since it cannot be denied that the influence of the United States in the internal policies of
Colombia affected the decision-making ".