Andean states lobby for inclusion of leather in free trade agreement
Though the current ATPA is due to expire this November, it is widely expected to be renewed and expanded. At a recent meeting in the Colombian seaport Cartagena, the Presidents of the ATPA countries drafted a letter that was presented to President Bush at last week’s ‘Summit of the Americas’ in Quebec. In the letter they called for exports of leather, leather products, textiles and tuna be granted the same duty-free status that already applies to products such as flowers, oil, minerals, coffee and bananas.
A much larger free trade zone – spanning the whole of the Americas from Argentina in the South to Canada in the north – was the main subject of the three-day summit in Quebec City.
During the meeting, President Bush endorsed completing negotiations on a new ‘Free Trade Area of the Americas’ by 2005. This would effectively extend the current NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) between the US, Canada and Mexico to the whole of the Americas.
