Late Friday night Congress approved a six-month extension of the Andean Trade Preference and Drug Eradication Act (ATPDEA) for Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia. Therefore, duties will not be assessed on importers of record as of Jan. 1, 2007.

Under the new bill, the ATPDEA will be extended for six months for Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia, followed by another six-month extension for each country only if the United States and that country complete their legislative processes to approve a free trade agreement (FTA).  The additional six months could be used to finalize implementation procedures.

Peru and Colombia have completed free trade agreements with the United States, but the U.S. government has not yet approved them. Once the president submits a free trade agreement to Congress, lawmakers have 90 days to ratify the agreement with no amendments. It is almost assured that the FTA with Colombia will be ratified next year, granting permanent duty-free status to flowers from Colombia.

Ecuador and Bolivia have not completed FTAs with the United States. It took the United States and Colombia almost two years to reach an agreement on an FTA, therefore prospects for an FTA with Ecuador in six months appear slim. The recent election of Rafael Correa as Ecuador's new president makes the chance of an FTA even more remote, since he has expressed opposition to an agreement. If an FTA is not ratified with Ecuador, importers of record will have to pay duties on Ecuadorian product on July 1, 2007.

--Vanessa Machir
vmachir@safnow.org

 

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