Industry News Archives

Nate Herman – AAFA Newsbreaker

Presidents Santos and Obama clinch FTA

President Barack Obama announced April 15 from the Summit of the Americas in Cartegena, Colombia that the long-pending U.S./Colombia Free Trade Agreement will be implemented May 15.

The agreement makes permanent many of the benefits currently enjoyed by the apparel and footwear industries under the temporary Andean Trade Promotion & Drug Eradication Act (ATPDEA). Those benefits include duty-free access for apparel from Colombia or the United States into the other market under a "yarn-forward" type rule. For footwear, most footwear will be duty-free under fairly flexible rules.

It will be interesting to see if Colombia does actually manage to increase its exports to the US market, especially in terms of footwear and apparel (excluding beach wear) in the framework of this FTA. Figures can be compared in one year’s time.