The Colombia-US free trade agreement went into effect on May 15, 2012. This should provide lots of opportunities for Colombian entrepreneurs to bring products into the United States. If you are a Colombian business looking to take advantage of the free trade agreement with the United States, contact us now to determine how to properly set up your company and take advantage of this tremendous opportunity.
U.S.–Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement (TPA) will support more jobs, increase trade between the two countries and enhance both countries’ 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, expand trade between our two countries and promote economic growth for both.
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, supporting 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 each country’s market, supporting increased opportunities for service providers.
U.S. goods exports to Colombia in 2010 were $12.0 billion. 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 United States 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.
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.
The Agreement provides for improved standards for the protection and enforcement of a broad range of intellectual property rights, consistent with U.S. and emerging international standards of protection and enforcement. Such improvements include requirements for IPR protections that are critical to protecting copyrighted works like music, movies, and software from piracy in the digital environment; requirements for strong, deterrent criminal penalties against copyright piracy and trademark counterfeiting; requirements for robust patent and test data protection that respects the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health; and state-of-the-art protection for U.S. trademarks
Thousands of small businesses engage in trade between the two countries. In 2009, U.S. small and medium enterprises (SMEs) exported $3.1 billion in merchandise to Colombia. Contact us now to set up your company in the United States in order to capitalize on the TPA.
