The overall effect of imports under the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA) on the U.S. economy and consumers continued to be negligible in 2001, reports the U.S. International Trade Commission.

The ITC, an independent, nonpartisan, factfinding federal agency, recently issued its eighth report in a series monitoring imports required by the ATPA. Pending renewal of the ATPA program, which expired on December 4, 2001, the Commission conducted this year's ATPA report under a request from the Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives.

The ATPA program, which was renewed August 6, 2002, affords preferential tariff treatment to most products of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. These four Andean countries are the source of the coca plants from which most of the world's cocaine is produced or are major transit areas for cocaine. The ATPA's goal is to promote the development of sustainable economic alternatives to drug crop production by offering alternative, legal Andean products broader access to the U.S. market.

Following are highlights of the ITC publication Andean Trade Preference Act: Impact on U.S. Industries and Consumers and on Drug Crop Eradication and Crop Substitution, Eighth Report, 2001:

• Total U.S. imports from ATPA countries in 2001 amounted to $9.6 billion, of which $1.7 billion, or 17.5 percent, entered under ATPA. The portion of U.S. imports from ATPA countries entering under ATPA declined very slightly, from 17.8 percent in 2000, reflecting, in part, the shorter-than-12-month duration of ATPA, which expired on December 4, 2001. Copper and copper articles (primarily refined copper cathodes) was the leading category of imports under ATPA in 2000 and 2001, replacing flowers, which had been the leading category since ATPA was implemented.

• A few industries were identified as potentially experiencing displacement by ATPA imports of more than an estimated 5 percent of the value of U.S. production: fresh-cut roses; chrysanthemums, carnations, anthuriums, and orchids; and asparagus. U.S. imports of all of the 20 leading ATPA-exclusive items produced net welfare gains for U.S. consumers in 2001.

• ATPA continued to have a small, indirect, but positive effect on drug-crop eradication and crop substitution efforts in Bolivia and Peru in 2001. ATPA appeared to have a limited effect on such efforts in Colombia, where net coca cultivation continued to increase in 2001. However, ATPA trade preferences helped strengthen Colombia's macroeconomic performance and provided jobs for workers who might otherwise have participated in illicit coca cultivation.

Andean Trade Preference Act: Impact on U.S. Industries and Consumers and on Drug Crop Eradication and Crop Substitution, Eighth Report, 2001 (Inv. No. 332-352, USITC Publication No. 3538, September 2002) will be available on the ITC's Internet site at www.usitc.gov. The publication will also be available at federal depository libraries in the United States. A CD-ROM or printed copy of the report may be requested by calling 202-205-1809 or by writing to the Office of the Secretary, U.S. International Trade Commission, 500 E Street SW, Washington, DC 20436. Requests may also be faxed to 202-205-2104.

ITC general factfinding investigations, such as this one, cover matters related to tariffs or trade and generally are conducted at the request of the U.S. Trade Representative, the Senate Committee on Finance, or the House Committee on Ways and Means. The resulting reports convey the Commission's objective findings and independent analyses on the subjects investigated. The Commission makes no recommendations on policy or other matters in its general factfinding reports. Upon completion of each investigation, the ITC submits its findings and analyses to the requester. General factfinding investigation reports are subsequently released to the public unless they are classified by the requestor for national security reasons.