THE FTA BETWEEN COLOMBIA AND THE UNITED STATES

For countries over the years, different agreements and treaties play an important
role in the country's economic development. The Colombia-U.S. FTA began in
2006, going through different meetings to be approved, with Decree 993 of the
year 2012, the Free Trade Agreement – FTA came into force and has meant that
more large, medium, micro and small companies export to the United States.
The FTA allows tariff-free access to more than 6,000 colombian product items, the
preferential access that the treaty allows to the U.S. market is the great business
opportunity for trade growth and wealth for the country.
A trade agreement involves the country being included in the export platform,
increasing the possibilities for domestic and foreign investment. Among the many
obligations involved in the FTA is trade facilitation by reducing bureaucracy and
attention times in customs procedures, logistics and electronic commerce.

The Colombia-U.S. FTA consists of 23 chapters and annexes, one of the functions
of the free trade agreement commission is to monitor the effects of implementation
on small and medium-sized enterprises or also called SMEs, and the Minister of
Trade, Industry and Tourism carried out the creation of the free trade commission
in Colombia in order to advance the administration of the treaty.

The treaty generates many advantages for Colombia, such as the consolidation for
the country of preferences that were granted by the Andean Trade Promotion and
Drug Eradication Act – ATPDEA, also gains space compared to other countries
that are competitors with other countries that are direct competitors having an
advantage at the international level; it also improves the diplomatic relationship
between countries. It has a positive impact on tourism, the flow of travelers has
also resulted in a greater presence of US airlines in Colombia.

Another benefit of the FTA is that it has the need to strengthen Colombia's
commercial capacity, also build better trading conditions and create value in
various areas.

The Commission for The Strengthening of Trade Capabilities is responsible for

managing international cooperation processes through strategies defined by
Colombia.

But NAFTA has not only its advantages but also its disadvantages, such as that it
does not benefit workers, its benefits are only to companies. Another disadvantage

Elaborado por: LAURA CATHERINE CAYCEDO PENAGOS

is that autonomy has decreased in some domestic products, lowering economic
performance and balance sheets. One important and harmful thing to citizens is
that the treaty migrates employment, causing the unemployment rate to rise for
Colombians.

Opening up to a new market with the greater acquisition power of our country,
makes Colombia disadvantage the United States.
It is important to consider the procedures to be followed when resolving the
problems presented in the implementation and development processes in the
implementation of the treaty, which is found in the dispute resolution chapter. The
procedures are the objectives of the FTA, such as customs that are simplified,
expeditious and with clear rules of play, which allow the import and export of goods
to be carried out in an agile manner and even less cost. This reduces uncertainty
the uncertainty of entrepreneurs' uncertainty about what they can with their goods
at ports and allows them timely delivery of products to their customers.
In the negotiated texts they tend to modernize customs procedures in Colombia,
with the aim of achieving international standards in foreign trade operations.
Countries develop standards and technical regulations to protect the lives of
people, plants and animals; they can also be based on environmental protection or
consumer protection, such as avoiding fraud due to quality problems. Just as
sanitary and phytosanitary measures protect agricultural markets, technical
standards and regulations are specifications as indicated by techniques, also
scientific or technological, that goods entering a country must comply with; for
example, the characteristics of the car seat belts and packaging specifications.
It is hoped that the agreement will contribute to reducing the proliferation of
technical standards and regulations, to speed up trade by agreeing on compliance
assessment mechanisms, and to raising the quality and competitiveness of
Colombian products going to international markets, by seeking convergence of
standards and regulations to international standards. This last point is of great
importance; if the rules and regulations for a product are different in Colombia and
other countries to which it is exported, the product will have to be manufactured to
the required specifications in each market, ensuring cost reduction and the use of
economies of scale.
An important role was also that new topics of interest to the country were included.
In the field of copyright, Colombia kept its legislation essential and updated it with
respect to its application in relation to new technologies such as the Internet,
leaving an adequate balance between the protection of authors in the digital
environment and access to culture, education and information. The FTA
recognizes the relevance of institutions of importance to the country such as

Elaborado por: LAURA CATHERINE CAYCEDO PENAGOS

copyright collective management societies whose function is to enforce the
economic rights of our singers, authors and other artists.

Elaborado por: LAURA CATHERINE CAYCEDO PENAGOS