trade

Torrijos to push FTA on U.S. trip

President Martín Torrijos will be leading a delegation to the United States in September to discuss the passage of a free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries.

The delegation, which will also include Alberto Alemán Zubieta, administrator of the Panama Canal, Chancellor Samuel Lewis Navarro and Ministra de Comercio Carmen G. Vergara, will attend meetings in Washington, D.C. On Sept. 16 and 17.

According to the newsletter Inside US Trade, the delegation will be promoting the approval of the FTA.

“The Panamanian officials appear to be contemplating several ways to try to cooperate with U.S. foreign policy goals in order to persuade the Bush administration to send the free trade legislation to Congress for approval,” the newsletter stated.

The trip is timed to follow the elections that will take place in Panama's Asamblea Nacional. In those elections, Pedro Miguel González is expected to be replaced as the leader of the Asamblea.

U.S. officials said it was his election last year that prompted the trade agreement to be put on a back burner.

Now that he will be leaving office, Panamanian officials are confident that the U.S. Congress will act on the agreement this year.

Congress is currently not in session, and will not return from its summer recess until late September.