International trade: four free trade agreements GAO reviewed have resulted in commercial benefits

Original publisher: [Washington, D.C.] : U.S. Govt. Accountability Office, [2009] OCLC Number: (OCoLC)430116334 Subject: Free trade. Excerpt: ... fostering peace, countering terrorism, and liberalizing trade. Indeed, several already had or have since concluded FTAs with key U.S. competitors such as the European Union ( EU ), Canada, or Japan. The four partners on which we chose to focus - Jordan, Singapore, Chile, and Morocco - were selected after considering variables such as development status and dates for entry into force, and reflect a cross section of the larger group's country characteristics and the regional dispersion of U.S. FTAs across Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. Yet each has unique characteristics, including the following: Singapore, a diverse city-state and trading hub with a highly developed • economy where trade in services plays a very significant role, is the United States ' twelfth largest export market, with a positive U.S. trade balance in 2008. Chile, is a resource-rich, middle-income economy with a transparent and • liberal trade and investment regime that has made impressive inroads in reducing poverty. Chile represents our twenty-fourth largest export market in 2008 and has a strong complementary trading relationship with the United States, notably in agriculture. Morocco, a lower middle income developing country that represented only • about 0.1 percent of U.S. exports in 2008, has typically been a closer trading partner with the EU due to cultural, language, transportation, and social ties, especially to France. Jordan, a resource-poor small developing country with which the United • States now has a trade deficit, acceded to the WTO in 2000, and was the first Arab country associated with the Middle East peace process to sign an FTA with the United States. This FTA is less comprehensive in scope than post-TPA agreements. Such country differences, as well as the length of time FTAs have been in force, likely affect FTA re...