FTA negotiations with China stalled in the fifth round in 2019 during the government of former President Juan Carlos Varela.
The possibility of Panama and China resuming negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is still dormant, as expressed yesterday by China’s Director of Commerce, Li Xingqian.
Xingqian said in the speech of the “Business Meeting and Agreement Signing Ceremony between China and Panama,” that the Asian nation “hopes that both sides will resume negotiations on the China-Panama Free Trade Agreement as soon as possible so that the benefits of free trade cooperation will soon reach the companies and peoples of both countries.”
For his part, the Deputy Minister of Commerce and Industries, Carlos Hoyos, indicated that, since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Panama and China, many concrete results have been achieved in economic and trade cooperation.
FTA negotiations with China stalled in the fifth round in 2019 during the government of former President Juan Carlos Varela.
The Free Trade Agreement was limited to the signing of a partial scope agreement to facilitate exports.
Signature of agreements
Yesterday morning some 11 national companies signed agreements to export products to China during the China-Panama Business and Signature Act Round.
The event was attended by commercial representations of more than 30 Chinese companies that concluded commercial agreements with Panamanian companies, to analyze import opportunities for agricultural and sea products, such as coffee and fish flour.
This article has been translated after first appearing in Panama America