Statistics

Colombia FTA in headlines as Clinton aide steps aside

April 7th, 2008

Colombia came within an eyelash of $18 billion in trade with the United States in 2007, according to data from Americas TradeNumbers, an annual WorldCity publication released last week at the opening of the annual Inter-American Development Bank meeting in Miami.

The South American nation was integral today to the lead story in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, among others, as a top aide to U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton resigned as her chief political strategist for her presidential campaign. Mark Penn, who has advised both former President Bill Clinton and his wife for more than a decade, is the chief executive of Burson-Martseller, the global public relations firm, and it represents, among other clients, the government of Colombia.

Sen. Clinton has come out in opposition to a pending free trade agreement with Colombia.

Colombia is the fourth-leading trade partner for the United States in the Western Hemisphere, and the new leader of a third tier of Americas trade partners.

The first tier is Canada and Mexico, with more than $900 million in trade between the two of them. The second tier is Brazil and Venezuela, which both topped $50 billion for the first time in 2007.

Colombia and Chile each had $17 billion and sufficiently distanced themselves from the fourth tier of trade partners, with annual totals between $7 billion and $11 billion.

Colombia only surpassed $10 billion in total U.S. trade for the first time in 2003, and its trade has essentially doubled since 2002.

In 2007, its annual trade with the United States increased 12.7 percent, more than double the Americas average of 5.8 percent. With its 2007 growth, it jumped ahead of Chile into the No. 3 position in the hemisphere.

For more details, import-export statistics for the United States and Colombia can be found at the end of this article.

Both Clinton and her Democratic Party rival, Sen. Barrack Obama, have indicated they are opposed to passage of the Colombia-United States free trade agreement.

In the hemisphere, the United States currently has FTAs with Canada and Mexico in the North America Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA; with Chile; with Peru; and with the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua in the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement, or DR-CAFTA.

CUSTOMS DISTRICTS: Miami and Houston lead the charge in two-way trade with Colombia but the Mobile, Alabama Customs district has gained the most ground in the last few years. In just three years, from 2004 to 2007, Mobile’s trade has more than doubled, from $592.5 million to $1.3 billion, and now commands almost 7 percent of all U.S. trade with the Andean nation.
Miami has been the most important Customs district for Colombian trade for at least 15 years, but the market share, after peaking at 41.9 percent in 1994, has succumbed to pressure from others, and finished 2007 at 27 percent.

EXPORTS: The top three exports to Colombia represent the agricultural, the industrial and the technological corn, machinery parts and computers. Corn became the first U.S. export to exceed $500 million to Colombia in 2007. Overall, exports continued to show significant growth, increasing an impressive 27.6 percent in 2007.

IMPORTS: U.S. imports from Colombia are varied, but oil accounts for 37.6 percent of the total, down from a high of 48.8 percent in 2000. Colombia is known for its flower imports, primarily into Miami, and those grew 13.2 percent in 2007. Iron alloys and coke from coal were two of the fastest-growing imports into the United States in 2007.

BALANCE OF TRADE: After reaching a high of $3.4 billion in 2005, the United States deficit with Colombia has decreased, ending 2007 at $880.5 million. Interestingly enough, that deficit does not come from the top three Customs districts, Miami, Houston and New Orleans, all of which registered a trade surplus with Colombia. The biggest U.S. deficit is between Colombia and San Francisco, at $716.2 million.

To purchase a copy of the sixth annual version of Americas TradeNumbers, which provides the top imports and exports between the United States and the record 24 nations in the Western Hemisphere, click here.

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