…and thereby improving our exports.
by Stormy
lifted from an e-mail
–and thereby improving our exports.
Some background:
Presently, Colombia enjoys a healthy trade surplus with the U.S.
“Colombia’s biggest surpluses in the January-April period were with the U.S., at $2.325 billion, and with the Netherlands, at $425 million.”
Colombia also is actively promoting its sourcing capabilities:
“Colombia’s IT sector already includes several of the world largest outsourcing companies. IBM, Accenture and EDS are riding the crest of the wave along with world giants such as Oracle, Microsoft, Sun, Dell and many others. All these companies have already discovered the advantages of outsourcing and doing business in Colombia”
What I am curious about is what will we be exporting to Colombia? Of course, NAFTA did not create jobs in the U.S., but it did bring about a healthy Mexican trade surplus with the U.S.
Wheat and livestock are what might be going to Colombia from the U.S. In short, agriculture and livestock farmers are pushing the deal….not too many jobs created there.
The problem with “free” trade agreements is that politicians and regulators create those. By default, when dumb people create policy, it becomes dumb policy. Do we really need an agreement at all?
It is possible to look these things up you know. “US exports to Colombia” gives me this 2007 page:
http://www.trade.gov/td/industry/otea/otii/colombiafta/colombia_index.html
“
Manufactured goods made up 86 percent of U.S. merchandise exports to Colombia in 2006. Basic chemicals were the largest manufactured export category, with $928 million, or 14 percent of total U.S. shipments of merchandise. Other significant manufactured export categories were computer equipment ($562 million); agricultural and construction machinery ($512 million); resin, synthetic rubber, and synthetic fibers and filaments ($351 million); and general purpose machinery ($226 million).
The United States also exported significant amounts of unprocessed agricultural commodities to Colombia in 2006. Shipments of unprocessed oilseeds and grains totaled $526 million, accounting for 8 percent of total U.S. exports to Colombia.”
I’m sure Mr. Google could help you find more recent data as well.
But the idea that the bulk of the exports from the world’s largest manufacturing nation are manufactures really shouldn’t surprise anyone.
Columbia’s export surplus with the US is far more than $2.35B. There appear to be no trustworthy estimates of the export value of cocaine and other illegal drugs shipped to the US from Columbia, but it is almost certainly in the billions. See http://www.drugwardistortions.org/distortion19.htm
US “imports” from Columbia also omit the money spent by the US in Columbia to try to control the drug trade.
US exports to Columbia — cash and small arms?
This is what the Dept of State says: “Trade
Colombia is the United States’ fourth-largest export market in the Western Hemisphere behind Canada, Mexico and Brazil, and the largest agricultural export market in the hemisphere after the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) countries. U.S. exports to Colombia in 2009 were U.S. $9.4 billion, down 17% from the previous year. U.S. imports from Colombia were U.S. $11.3 billion, down 14%. Colombia’s major exports are petroleum, precious stones, coffee, plastics, cut flowers, and bananas. The United States is Colombia’s largest trading partner, representing about 39% of Colombia’s exports and 28% of its imports.”
From here: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/35754.htm
Of course we forget this minor little fact of 2008 colombian US imports: Crude oil … US$5.9 billion, up 66.2% from 2007 (45% of US imports from Colombia)
Half our import trade is oil. Whoda think?
http://deltafarmpress.com/news_archive/us-losing-colombia-ag-markets-0705/
While the United States sits on the sidelines, competition for market share in Colombia heats up as U.S. competitors negotiate free trade agreements (FTA).
Canada recently ratified a FTA with Colombia and the European Union is expected to complete an agreement this summer. According to the U.S. Grains Council, the continued delay in ratifying the U.S-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement (CTPA) is having a profound impact on U.S. agriculture.
“Despite the fact Colombia has been the largest market for U.S. agriculture exports in South America and the third-largest market in the Western hemisphere, behind only Canada and Mexico, we have lost significant market share in just a short period,” said USGC Chairman Rick Fruth.
U.S. exports of agricultural commodities declined sharply from $1.6 billion in 2008 to $907 million in 2009, a 46 percent decline.
“This lack of an agreement cost the U.S. corn sector alone $314 million in 2009. The U.S. market share of Colombia’s feed grain imports dropped from 96 percent in 2007 to 38 percent in 2009,” said Fruth, who farms corn just outside of Holgate, Ohio.
U.S. agricultural products continue to face a 15 percent import tariff and Colombia’s price band system which imposes a variable charge on top of the regular import duty. Meanwhile, Argentina and Brazil continue to enjoy the advantages from the MERCOSUR agreement with Colombia, facing only a 6.9 percent tariff.
Google even gets you links to June 2010!
Commodity
Export Value YTD April 2009, $ billions
Export Value YTD April 2010, $ billions
Dollar Change, $ billions
Percent Change
Petroleum & Coal Products
$10.7
$17.7
$7.0
65.5
Motor Vehicles
$10.4
$16.6
$6.2
59.7
Motor Vehicle Parts
$9.6
$14.8
$5.2
54.6
Basic Chemicals
$13.0
$18.1
$5.1
39.5
Semiconductors & Other Electronic Components
$15.2
$20.3
http://www.trade.gov/press/press-releases/2010/export-factsheet-june2010-061010.pdf
So my IT job is going to be outsourced to Columbia instead of India? Our biggest issue with having workers in India is the 10.5 hour time difference. Since Columbia is only 1 hour behind NY, that problem is pretty much eliminated. I can’t decide if I’d rather travel to India or Columbia to train my replacement.
Utterly unrelated, but it’s a fun story…
A couple of decades ago, a friend of mine traveled to Colombia on vacation. She went with a girlfriend. So they meet this guy in a coffee shop, young, handsome, good English. He approaches them and with very little fanfare, says “are you interested in buying some emeralds?” They think he’s kidding, but he is you and handsome, so they string him along. He says “let’s meet at a dance club tonight and I’ll bring some emeralds for you to see.” Dance club? Of course they go.
He meets them, slides into the booth and says, “before we get down to business, would you like to dance?” No doubt about the answer, just a question of who goes first. So my friend manages to say “yes” first. He hops up. She hops up. He reaches under his jacket and pulls out the 9mm, and says “would you hold this?” to her friend. She took it, put it in her lap and covered it with a napkin, completely freaked out. OK, so dancing done, he later says, “would you like to see them?” and pours some crudely cut green things out of a pouch on to the table. They have no idea what they are looking at. He quotes them a price so low that they know he’s lying about the “gems”, but they have money, think this is a not-too-expensive trinket to show to friends when they get back home and, in the back of their minds, he has a gun and and came expecting to do business. They each buy one “emerald” from the handsome young Colombian man. He pays for the drinks.
So, they had a lark. It was exciting, more so because it seemed slightly illicit. They got to dance with a handsome young man and had a story to tell. And when they got home, they each had one, large, rough-cut emerald.
Utterly unrelated, but it’s a fun story…
A couple of decades ago, a friend of mine traveled to Colombia on vacation. She went with a girlfriend. So they meet this guy in a coffee shop, young, handsome, good English. He approaches them and with very little fanfare, says “are you interested in buying some emeralds?” They think he’s kidding, but he is young and handsome, so they string him along. He says “let’s meet at a dance club tonight and I’ll bring some emeralds for you to see.” Dance club? Of course they go.
He meets them there, slides into the booth and says, “before we get down to business, would you like to dance?” No doubt about the answer, just a question of who goes first. So my friend manages to say “yes” first. He hops up. She hops up. He reaches under his jacket and pulls out the 9mm, and says “would you hold this?” to her friend. She took it, put it in her lap and covered it with a napkin, completely freaked out. OK, so all the dancing done, he says, “would you like to see them?” and pours some crudely cut green things out of a pouch on to the table. They have no idea what they are looking at. He quotes them a price so low that they know he’s lying about the “gems”, but they have money, think this is a not-too-expensive trinket to show to friends when they get back home and, in the back of their minds, he has a gun and and came expecting to do business. They each buy one “emerald” from the handsome young Colombian man. He pays for the drinks.
So, they had a lark. It was exciting, more so because it seemed slightly illicit. They got to dance with a handsome young man and had a story to tell. And when they got home, they each had one, large, rough-cut emerald.