BRIEFS. trade

US extends tariff benefits until 2010

The United States has extended the Caribbean Basin Initiative, which gives preferential tariffs to imports from the Caribbean and Latin America, until 2010.

The trade deal was due to expire this year, but a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Panama confirmed that the benefit has been extended.

Representatives of the Union of Industrialists of Panama recently sent a letter to Minister of Trade and Industry Gisela Porras asking that the minister seek to have the agreement extended. If it expired, the industrialists said that Panama could have been at a disadvantage compared to other Central American countries that have trade agreements in effect with the U.S.

The extension of the agreement comes as good news to exporters, who late last year saw their preferential tariffs with European Union countries expire because of a mistake on the part of Panamanian diplomats.

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