Panama is a strategic market for T&T and Trade Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon yesterday underscored the importance of creating more opportunities there for local manufacturers and the services sector.
Speaking at a Pre-Mission Breakfast Seminar on Doing Business in Panama, ahead of a June 8 to 12 T&T trade visit, the minister spoke about the increased trade and economic ties between the two countries.
The breakfast session took place at the Westmoorings headquarters of the T&T Chamber of Industry and Commerce, the group leading the trade mission.
"Trinidad and Tobago has developed a positive trade balance with Panama over the years. In 2015 our exports to Panama exceeded our imports by $221 million and we expect this will increase once the partial scope agreement between the two countries in enforced," she said.
Gopee-Scoon said the partial scope agreement has already been debated and passed by both houses of Parliament and the next step is for a Cabinet note, then its proclamation.
She said the agreement will pave the way for expanded trade relations which will facilitate access by T&T's private sector to the Panama market, among the fastest growing economies in the region.
Under the agreement, Gopee-Scoon said, T&T will provide preferential access to more than 240 products from Panama, including plastics, paper products and clothing.
In return, T&T exporters will have preferential access in agro-processing, cocoa, cereals, plastic containers, paper products, tiles and blocks.
With Panama's economy projected to grow by more than six per cent in the near to medium future, the minister said she expects T&T's companies to reap benefits from their investments in that country.
Catherine Kumar, CEO of the T&T Chamber of Commerce, quoted statistics from the Economic Commission For Latin America and the Caribbean (Eclac) which showed that Panama had the strongest economic growth in Latin America last year.
She urged the Government to move quickly to have the partial scope trade agreement proclaimed. Given the current challenging economic circumstances in T&T, Kumar said, Latin American countries cannot be ignored.