U.S. Free Trade Agreements

Trade agreements help open markets and expand opportunities for American workers and businesses and can help your company enter and compete more easily in the global marketplace. Trade agreements are also a tool for promoting fair competition and encouraging foreign governments to adopt open and transparent rulemaking procedures as well as non-discriminatory laws and regulations. Trade agreements can strengthen the business climate by including commitments on issues of concern along with the reduction and elimination of tariffs. Trade agreements may include commitments on topics such as:

Improving intellectual property right protection

Enhancing labor rights

Government procurement

Opening service sectors to competition

Enhancing rules on foreign investment

Environmental standards

Improving customs facilitation

The United States is party to many bi-lateral and multi-lateral trade agreements. Countries with which the U.S. has active bi-lateral trade agreements include: Australia, Bahrain, Chile, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Peru, Oman, and Singapore. The active multi-lateral trade agreements that the U.S. has signed include the North American Free-Trade Agreement and the Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR). The U.S. is also party to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT, overseen by the WTO) along with 152 other countries. U.S. trade agreements with Panama, Korea, and Columbia are pending congressional approval. The U.S. is also in negotiations on trade agreements with Malaysia, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, and the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) which includes Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, and Swaziland.

Country-specific trade agreement information is available by clicking on an area of interest on the right in the “Main Topics” box or in the table below.

The table below shows the growth in U.S. exports to its trade agreement partners from 2007 to 2008.

Growth in Total U.S. Exports to Free Trade Agreement Countries

Source: www.usitc.gov, data compiled from tariff and trade data from the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission.

Country

2007 MMUSD

2008 MMUSD

Percent Change

NAFTA

332,499

353,931

6.45%

Canada

213,118

222,424

4.40%

Mexico

119,381

131,507

10.20%

CAFTA-DR

21,274

23,922

12.45%

Costa Rica

4,224

5,047

19.50%

Dominican Rep

5,793

6,293

8.60%

Guatemala

3,872

4,493

16.00%

Honduras

4,327

4,699

8.60%

Nicaragua

846

1,030

21.70%

El Salvador

2,209

2,357

6.70%

Australia

17,916

20,948

16.90%

Bahrain

565

779

37.80%

Chile

7,610

11,366

49.40%

Israel

9,940

10,238

3.00%

Jordan

831

904

8.70%

Morocco

1,333

1,506

12.90%

Oman

1,034

1,380

33.40%

Peru

3,764

5,686

51.10%

Singapore

23,576

25,655

8.80%

Total

420,348

456,319

8.60%