RECENTLY, Colombian President Gustavo Petro said the United States-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement (TPA) bars his country from growing local strains of corn. Due to this, Colombia is also obligated to plant only strains produced in the US and Canada instead.
The statement was made Wednesday during a meeting with coffee growers as the agreement is found to be harming Colombia’s output and jobs.
“We import almost all of our corn from the United States and Canada. If I wanted to replace that corn with Colombian corn I would create 1.2 million more jobs. In other words, wealth,” President Gustavo Petro, Colombia said.
The United States-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement (TPA) entered into force on May 15, 2012. The TPA is a comprehensive free trade agreement that provides the elimination of tariffs and removes barriers to US services, including financial services.
Over 80 percent of US exports of consumer and industrial products to Colombia became duty-free upon entry into force, with remaining tariffs phased out over ten years.
Kevin Gallagher, professor of Global Development and Director of the Global Development Policy Center at Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies previously wrote that the said agreement will bring only small gains to Colombia— and these will come at a significant cost.
Gallagher added that the said deal will dampen growth and make it harder for Colombia to put in place policies for innovation and industrialization. In addition, Colombia will have fewer tools to confront instability, thus forcing it to work twice as hard to maximize the benefits of the agreement.
The TPA will also make it harder for Colombia to establish public policies that foster innovation, which are necessary to diversify the economy with higher value-added goods, and reducing tariffs will strip the government of funds needed for combating guerrillas, fighting crime, and developing the economy.
Meanwhile, Petro’s critics have warned that imposing new tariffs on imports would prompt the United States to engage in a tit-for-tat response which in turn would further harm the Colombian economy.
