U.S.-Panama Trade Promotion Agreement - New York Farmers Will Benefit

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U.S.-Panama Trade Promotion Agreement - New York Farmers Will Benefit

November 2007

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The U.S.-Panama Trade Promotion Agreement eliminates tariffs and other barriers on most U.S. goods, increasing export opportunities for agricultural products important to New York. With immediate elimination of duties on over 60 percent of current U.S. trade, this agreement changes the one-way street of duty-free access currently enjoyed by most Panamanian exports into a two-way street benefiting both countries. The American Farm Bureau strongly supports the agreement, predicting widespread gains for U.S. agriculture exceeding $190 million per year.

New York's exports to all countries, estimated at $671 million in 2006, supported about 7,900 jobs, on and off the farm. These export sales make an important contribution to the New York farm economy which had total cash receipts of $3.5 billion in 2006.

Dairy. The dairy industry accounted for 46 percent of the state's farm cash receipts with earnings of $1.6 billion in 2006. New York is the nation's third largest exporter of dairy products. Dairy farmers will benefit from the Panama agreement.

U.S. exporters will have immediate duty-free access to nine preferential dairy tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) with a combined total of 3,986 tons. These include 2,625 tons of skim milk powder, 728 tons of cheese, 263 tons of ice cream, and 370 tons of other dairy products. These quantities will grow by 4 or 5 percent each year and the over-quota tariffs for these TRQs, which range from 15 percent for ice cream to 50 percent for milk powders, will be phased out in 15 to 17 years.

U.S. dairy exporters will continue to have access to the global TRQs for 3,830 tons of milk powder and 3,782 tons of cheese that are part of Panama's World Trade Organization commitments.

Panama will eliminate its 30-percent tariff on dried whey products immediately. The tariffs on most other dairy products, which currently face duties as high as 140 percent, will be phased out over 15 years.

In addition, Panama has already implemented our December 2006 bilateral agreement on sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures and technical standards by recognizing the equivalence of the U.S. food safety systems for processed foods, including dairy products, and by streamlining its product registration system for packaged foods. This will allow U.S. food processors to export dairy products to Panama without burdensome paper work and without having each facility and shipment inspected by Panamanian authorities.

The National Milk Producers Association supports the Agreement, noting that "Panama imports nearly half its dairy products, and the U.S. stands to become a larger supplier once the FTA is finalized."

Fruits. The fresh and processed fruit industry is important to the state. Apple growers along earn $204 million a year. New York's apple producers will benefit from this agreement.

Panama will eliminate its tariffs on nearly all fresh and processed fruits immediately.

Following are examples of fruit products of importance for New York that will be duty-free immediately (the currently applied tariff is indicated in parentheses): apples (2 percent), concentrated apple juice (Free), and concentrated grape juice (15 percent).

Panama will phase out its 15-percent tariffs on single-strength apple and grape juices in 12 and 15 years, respectively.

Beef. New York's cattle and calf industry is the state's fourth largest source of farm cash receipts with sales of $157 million in 2006. The industry will benefit from the Panama FTA.

Panama will immediately eliminate its 30-percent duty on beef products of most importance to the U.S. beef industry--prime and choice cuts. Panama's tariffs on other cuts of beef will be phased out over 15 years.

The 10-percent tariff on beef tongues and livers will be eliminated in 5 years, and the 15-percent tariffs on other edible offal will be eliminated immediately.

Panama has already implemented our December 2006 bilateral agreement on SPS measures, reopening its market to U.S. beef by bringing its import requirements related to BSE into compliance with international standards.

Panama also accepted the equivalence of the U.S. meat inspection system, which allows U.S. inspectors to certify beef for export to Panama without having each facility and shipment inspected by Panamanian authorities.

Vegetables. New York exported an estimated $67 million in fresh and processed vegetables in 2006. Potato and other vegetable growers will benefit from this agreement.

Panama will eliminate its tariffs on nearly all frozen and processed vegetables immediately. The tariff faced by U.S. exporters for these products currently is 15 percent.

The tariffs for most fresh vegetables will be eliminated in 10-15 years.

Panama will provide immediate duty-free access within a preferential TRQ for frozen precooked French fries that starts at 3,640 tons and grows each year by 4 percent. The 20-percent over-quota tariff will be eliminated in 5 years.

Panama will eliminate its 15-percent tariff on potato chips immediately and the tariffs on potato flakes (15 percent) and other potato preparations (as high as 54 percent) will be phased out in 5 to 10 years. Panama will also establish a 765-ton duty-free preferential TRQ for fresh potatoes that will grow each year by 2 percent.

Panama will eliminate its 15 percent tariffs on frozen and canned sweet corn immediately.

Wines. As a leading U.S. producer and exporter of wines, New York wine producers will benefit from this agreement.

Panama's tariff on still wine is 15 percent. Under the agreement, the tariff on bottled table wine will be eliminated immediately while tariffs on all other wine categories will be phased out within 5 years.

Back to the U.S.–Panama Trade Promotion Agreement


More information in:
http://www.uspanamatrade.org/ Text of the Agreement and more links
http://www.export.gov/fta/panama/panama_tpa_statedata.asp State Export Data
http://ffas.usda.gov/info/factsheets/Panama/us-PanamaTPAfactsheets.asp Benefits to Agriculture by State

Keywords: Free Trade Agreement, PAFTA, Trade Promotion Agreement

Movement at former Ice Tower construction site

A building crane is being set up and work continues at the site of the former Ice Tower. The builders of the former project refunded the down-payments to prospective buyers or consigned the deposits with local courts in order to wind-up the former project.

Ice Tower Reader

Regulations for Immigration Law are being drafted

Draft regulations for the Immmigration Law Decree 3 of 2008 are being circulated for comments. The regulations are meant to compile our requirements into a single document and avoid differing interpretations by government officials. Among the main changes from current practice would be:

- Applicants only have 10 business days after placing of a notice to remedy any defect in their documents,
- The Immigration Consultive Commission (formerly National Security Commission) is authorized again to impose nationality quotas for residency,
- Tourists deemed "personna non grata" may be denied entry on a non-discriminatory basis,
- Tourists may remain in the country for 90 days, renewable for 60 days when justified,
- Foreign workers must have a salary between US$1,000 and US$1,500 monthly to apply for
residency and work permit, up from US$500,
- Investor visas may only be requested by one applicant per company,
- Forestry visa minimum investment is doubled to US$80,000,
- Small-business investor visa is eliminated,
- Macro-business investor visa minimum investment is doubled to US$200,000,
- Self-solvency investor visa minimum investment is increased to US$350,000 left in deposit for 4 years.

The categories for temporary resident visas are named in Spanish as follows:
1. Por razones laborales
* Permiso de residencia temporal a contratado por el gobierno nacional o entidades autónomas o semiautónomas.
* Permiso de residencia temporal a contratado por empresas contratadas por el gobierno nacional.
* Permiso de residencia temporal bajo Resolución de Ministerio de Trabajo dentro del 10% del
personal panameño contratado por la empresa.
* Permiso de residencia temporal dentro del 15% del personal especializado tales como gerente,
personal de confianza, técnico o experto
* Permiso de residente temporal en calidad de Ejecutivo de Zona Libre
* Permiso de migrante remunerado desde el exterior
* Permiso de residencia temporal miembro de prensa escrita o televisiva internacional
* Permiso de residencia temporal de Acuerdo de Marrakech
2. Por políticas especiales
* Permiso de residencia temporal de productor, actor, técnico de cine y televisión
* Permiso de residencia temporal por Convenio de la Ciudad de Saber
* Permiso de residencia temporal por la Autoridad del Canal de Panamá
* Permiso de residencia temporal del Ärea Económica especial del Panamá-Pacífico
* Permiso de residencia temporal dentro de Zonas Procesadoras para la exportación
* Permiso de residencia temporal por Servicios en Centro de Llamadas (Call Center)
* Permiso de residencia temporal en calidad de ejecutivos de compañías internacionales
* Permiso de residente temporal en calidad de migrantes que laboren en Empresas Multinacionales
3. Por razones de educación, cultura y salud
* Permiso de residencia temporal para en calidad de migrante que se someterán a tratamientos medicos
* Permiso de residencia temporal para en calidad de investigadores y científicos
* Permiso de residencia temporal en calidad de estudiantes
4. Permiso de residencia temporal en calidad de religiosos, misioneros y misiones humanitarias
* Permiso de residente temporal en calidad de misionero, religioso al servicio de la iglesia católica y ortodoxa
* Permiso de residente temporal en calidad de misionero laico al servicio de la iglesia católica y ortodoxa
* Permiso de residente temporal en calidad de estudiante para ser religioso
* Permiso de visitante temporal en calidad de misionero religioso basado en el artículo 35 de la Constitución Nacional
* Permiso de visitante temporal a extranjeros que ingresen por Asistencia Humanitaria Internacional.
5. Permiso de residencia temporal de dependiente de un residente temporal.

The categories for permanent resident visas are named in Spanish as follows:

1. Por razones económicas
* Permisos de Inversionista
* Permiso de Solvencia Económica Propia
* Permiso de Pensionado o Jubilado
* Permiso de Rentista Retirado
2. Por políticas especiales
* Permiso para migrante que inviertan en empresas contratadas por Autoridad del Canal de Panamá
* Permiso para migrante que inviertan empresas que se encuentran en el Área Económica Especial Panamá-Pacífico
* Permiso para migrante de promotoras u operadoras de Zonas Procesadoras para la Exportación o empresas que se encuentran dentro de esas zonas.
* Permiso para migrante que inviertan en Call Center
* Permiso para migrantes que inviertan en la Industria Cinematográfica
3. Por razones demográficas
* Permiso bajo Sistemas de Cuotas
* Permiso de Reunificación Familiar
4. Por Convenios Internacionales

The information comes from a draft, so it is subject to changes before its enactment.

Government under energy-saving schedule

The Panamanian Government has enacted a decree whereby effective May 19 government workers will work non-stop from 7:30 AM to 1:30 PM. Workers of government-owned public utilities will continue with the normal schedule.

For Immigration, this translates into a special schedule:
Visa applications, extensions and multiple-entry filings will be received ONLY on MONDAY, WEDNESDAY and THURSDAYS 7 AM to 11:30 AM
Consultations will only be provided on THURSDAYS.
All entry to the public will end at 12:00 PM.

The usual queue for a limited number of applications will be outside the Immigration office at 6AM.

"Y las sonrisas, esas son gratis!"

Latin America’s First “Branded City” Planned for Panama Gold Coast

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 3^rd, 2007

Latin America’s First “Branded City” Planned for Panama Gold Coast

Meneren Corporation, a US-based international project development/project management company today announced that it expects to resume completion of the detailed master plan for a 3,000 Hectare waterfront community along the Gold Coast of Panama, in Cocle Province.

The preliminary master plan for this new community was crafted by internationally recognized North American master planning firms in 2006. It provided for 10,000 residential units situated on a series of golf courses, fresh and salt water marina’s, and an equestrian center.

The incorporation of a Village Center, with commercial and retail space, an Ecological Center, several resort hotels, casino’s and spa’s, combine to create what is called a “Branded City” in booming overseas markets. Branded Cities have been very successful because their Developers have the ability to plan, design and build a fully sustainable community from the ground up. Grand Panama, as it is being called, will have an ultimate population of 25,000 and provide post-construction employment for an estimated 5,000 Panamanian’s.

Grand Panama, will be designed and constructed using important “Sustainable Development” principles. Meneren Corporation was previously selected by the United Nations to complete a specialized development master plan to protect one of the most sensitive ecological treasures in the Eastern Hemisphere, and Meneren hopes to make Grand Panama one of the “greenest” large scale projects in the America’s—something that the people of Panama can be especially proud of.

Meneren Corporation and its technical team have global experience in planning commercial marina’s and commercial cruise terminals, and believe that integrating a “mega-yacht” harbor into the Grand Panama master plan will benefit locals and international visitors to Panama and the region.

The initial master plan effort for Grand Panama was suspended when the land which had been sold to Grand Panama International Ltd, Meneren’s Client, became entangled in one of the most contentious Probate Court disputes in Panama’s history. After a year and a half of intimidating charges and counter charges between the Legatees and the Executor of the estate, Meneren is now hoping that the land purchase can be allowed to go forward by the Panama’s courts in order to finalize the master plan and Government permitting process over the next months.

Point of Contact: Bill Tolbert, 1-303-221-3369

Full text in http://www.meneren.com/news.htm

Grand Panama Project

(For 2008 PDF Presentation,
Click Here)2007 Powerpoint

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Merchant accounts provide new way to get dollars

While most of the world economy is fleeing from the dollar to the euro and other economies, Venezuelans are opening credit card merchant accounts with banks in Panama and the Netherland Antilles to provide dollars to other Venezuelan nationals and making up to 20% in fees for that.

Venezuelans taking circuitous route to get dollars

By Simon Romero

Published: March 12, 2008

WILLEMSTAD, Curaçao: Stroll down Columbustraat. Enter the smoke-filled lobby of the San Marco Hotel Casino. Proceed up one flight of stairs to the front desk. Dial room 106. Bring a credit card issued in Venezuela.

In a desperate quest to get their hands on American dollars, Venezuelans are flocking to this island in the Netherlands Antilles to take part in this elaborate backroom scheme and dozens of others like it to get around currency controls imposed by the government of President Hugo Chávez....

Trying to slow capital flight, Venezuela limits its citizens to $5,000 in annual credit card purchases abroad. That is 10,750 bolivars, at the official exchange rate of 2.15 to the dollar. But at the prevailing black-market rate of 4.5 to the dollar, the amount more than doubles to 22,500 bolivars.

Seizing on that gap, some Venezuelans began coming to Curaçao's casinos last year and using their credit cards to buy chips. They then played a few hands and cashed in the chips for dollars, which circulate here along with guilders. But the casinos soon prohibited them from buying chips with their cards, because so few of the people were actually using the chips to gamble.

Middlemen then moved in, organizing trips for Venezuelans and charging a 20 percent commission for cash advances at the office of a merchant, like the travel agency in Room 106 of the San Marco Hotel. The middleman and merchant divide the $1,000 commission, leaving the Venezuelan with $4,000 in cash.

With a wink and a nod from local banks that process the transactions, the middlemen dummy up receipts, often for expensive electronic items, offering the travelers an alibi in case they are audited by back in Venezuela by bureaucrats loyal to Chávez.

Full text in http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/12/america/journal.php?page=1

Willemstad Journal

Island’s Treasure, the Dollar, Lures Venezuelans

By SIMON ROMERO

Published: March 13, 2008

...Some Venezuelans hold the dollars as a hedge against economic uncertainty, while others exchange them back in Venezuela for bolívars at the black-market rate, for a profit. The merchants get hefty commissions for swiping credit cards.

And in an illustration of where some of Venezuela’s oil wealth is going, some middlemen have accumulated fortunes. “I made $300,000 in December alone,” said Roberto, 31, a middleman who would not give his full name out of concern of being identified as a profiteer.

Full text in http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/13/world/americas/13curacao.html

Monaco With Bananas

Richard C. Morais 05.05.08, 12:00 AM ET

Who needs Liechtenstein or the isle of Jersey? We've got a lovely tax haven right in this hemisphere

In 2005 Alexandre and Aude de Beaulieu, Parisians in commodities trading and public relations, picked up stakes and flew to the Republic of Panama. For $60,000 they bought, renovated and equipped a shop in Casco Viejo, a decrepit Panama City neighborhood that was filled with squatters but so architecturally unique it is a Unesco World Heritage site. Their business: gourmet ice cream, with flavors like cinnamon and basil.

"Everyone told us we were crazy," says Alexandre. By which they meant that the entrepreneurs should set up shop closer to home. But France's thicket of taxes, regulations and restrictions on hiring and firing workers scared them away. "Panama is like California 20 years ago. Everyone I know is building something--a newspaper, a development. It's very uplifting."

The De Beaulieus' ice cream parlor, called Granclément, furnished with family heirlooms and antique scoopers, has got glowing writeups in the Financial Times and numerous local papers. When FORBES visited the shop in February, a European film crew was shooting Granclément for a travelogue to be aired on KLM flights. Down the cobblestone lane construction workers were restoring a crumbling palace as a five-star hotel, while the latest James Bond flick was being filmed in a nearby square.

Granclément is busy enough to generate maybe $150,000 a year in revenue, a good take in a country where shop clerks earn $4,000 in salary and benefits. So these 36-year-old self-starters and their four young children are on their way to becoming wealthy. This year the De Beaulieus will add supermarket distribution and a shop among the Miami-style high-rises and malls getting built in the modern banking quarter across the bay.
...

America's recent exit was in some ways the real birth of Panama. This lively backwater--famous mostly for flying maritime flags of convenience and hosting dodgy finance--seems to have found its voice. Democratically elected governments have clamped down (somewhat) on corruption, signed several free trade agreements (the U.S. Congress has yet to ratify a 2007 deal with Panama) and instituted tax and social reforms.
Meantime, even as the U.S. pulled up its drawbridge to many foreigners after the Sept. 11 attacks, its dollar was the standard for Panama, which (until lately, at least) has found the currency bulwark an additional attraction for some of those same itinerants.
Result: Panama's GDP has been compounding at 7% these last five years. "Something's happened," says Joseph Harari, director of Panama's Credicorp (nyse: BAP - news - people ) Bank and an executive board member at the Wharton School in Philadelphia. "We've always had very liberal tax laws. But we also use the U.S. dollar to run our economy. It all helped."

Panama's corporate tax rate is 30% and is levied on local income only. The U.S.' 35% federal corporate tax burden is, in contrast, the second highest in the world and is applied to global income. Caterpillar (nyse: CAT - news - people ), Procter & Gamble (nyse: PG - news - people ) and Hewlett-Packard (nyse: HPQ - news - people ) have all recently announced significant investments in Panama. The personal income tax, capped at 27%, is also limited; the De Beaulieus, for example, don't pay Panamanian taxes on their French investments, which face high levies at home.

Between the glass towers of HSBC and BNP Paribas, South Beach-quality apartment complexes emerge from every weed-choked lot, turning Panama City's skyline into a porcupine of cranes. New developments are granted tax holidays for 10 to 20 years. On the seaside Avenue Balboa, famed interior designer Philippe Starck is filling a 56-floor tower; Panamanian and Colombian partners have teamed up with Donald Trump to build the 68-story Trump Ocean Club International Hotel & Tower, financed by a $220 million bond offering.
According to one report 35 towers of over 20 floors are in construction. Besides the danger of overbuilding, there are stress signs of too-rapid growth: brownouts from an overtaxed electricity grid, a Third World sewage system under the First World high-rises. Filth is still pumped into the bay. The government says it is working on sewerage improvements.
Of course, the newly arriving affluent also want high culture and good health care. Frank O. Gehry is designing Panama's museum of biodiversity; Hospital Punta Pacifica is the recently opened affiliate of Johns Hopkins Medicine International.
The old Howard U.S. Air Force Base is a 20-minute drive from downtown Panama City. Dotted with ugly barracks, this 3,500-acre property is still oddly elegant, with rolling lawns and hills, reminiscent of an African savanna, interspersed with flowering rain forest. Europe's London & Regional Properties, with partners, recently won the contract for Howard.
The plan, says Dan R. Marcus, an American developer who just arrived to run the project, is to build 12 million square feet of commercial space alongside 20,000 housing units, all woven together in a "holistic way." Houses will be integrated into the lush forest; on hand, everything from fire stations to chic restaurants. A free trade zone grants Howard-based firms generous VAT to income tax breaks.
Backstopping all this glamour and hype are the canal and related ports. Some 14,000 ships a year make their way through the 50-mile link, paying a fee of up to $313,000. In 2006 Panamanians voted to build an additional set of locks, for $5.3 billion, that in 2014 will double capacity and finally allow modern and much larger container ships to pass through.
...

Still, Panama has juice. At the dated but busy Veneto Casino, South American men line the bar, sipping beer and watching a soccer match. Gamblers pull the slots as hookers work the house. There's a lot of money sloshing around, and there will be more of it.

Full text in :http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2008/0505/096.html



International
America's Loss, Panama's Gain
Richard C. Morais 05.05.08, 12:00 AM ET

Abraham Suchar is a 38-year-old Venezuelan who migrated to the U.S. and made good money in the Los Angeles construction boom of the late 1990s before hitting up against the real estate bust in Florida these last couple of years. Meanwhile, his childhood friend Roberto Molko, who married into a prominent Panamanian family, was down in Central America making a killing flipping apartments.

"Florida is now famous among Latin Americans for little fortunes. You come with a big fortune, and you leave with a little one," says Suchar.

So Suchar has joined his old friend in Panama, building office space. "With all the issues happening in the U.S., I have more of a chance to make a living here," he says. "And the quality of life is much better.

"Two maids and a driver in Panama cost you $1,000 a month," he added. His Danish wife and their daughters have yet to be convinced.

But January was Suchar's first month in Panama full time, and in that month the partners presold $17 million worth of real estate to Venezuelans fleeing Hugo Chávez socialism. Panama has low crime, says Molko; its clients are escaping the "kidnapping, robberies and assaults" routine back home.

The U.S. is losing out, too. Sandra Snyder, an American who has written the hot-selling starter's guide Living in Panama (TanToes SA, 2007), says Sept. 11 has been the excuse for the U.S. government to soak foreigners for $130 to consider a visa application. "Imagine what that means to a middle-class family, with four kids, wanting to take a shopping trip to the U.S. or visit Disney," she says.

So Latin America's arrivistes are bypassing the U.S. and heading instead to balmy Panama, where $5 and a 30-second visa form gets you waved into a country in which nearly all the top boutique brands are waiting for you in the marble-filled MultiPlaza Pacific Mall.

Full text in : http://www.forbes.com/2008/04/20/panama-taxes-monaco-biz-cz_rm_0505panama.html