The FTA with Israel will be sent to the Panamanian Parliament for ratification

The Government of Panama approved Tuesday to send to the National Assembly (AN) the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) signed by the Central American country with Israel in May 2018, to be ratified by the Panamanian unicameral Parliament, an official source said.

The Cabinet (Council of Ministers) authorized in its session this Tuesday the Minister of Commerce and Industries, Ramón Martínez, to be the one to present the free trade agreement Israel before the plenary session of the Panamanian unicameral parliament.

The AN is dominated widely by the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), with which it won the presidency of the country, Laurentino Cortizo, who took office last July 1 for the 2019-2024 period.

Panama and Israel concluded in November 2015 the FTA negotiations, which seeks to increase a trade balance that in that year was estimated at 17 million dollars annually by official Panamanian sources.

The commercial agreement was negotiated in the administration of Juan Carlos Varela (2014-2019), and signed on May 17, 2018 by the then Panamanian Minister of Commerce and Industries, Augusto Arosemena and his counterpart from Israel, Ran Cohen.

"This treaty allows and promotes investments and trade between the two countries, facilitating the transfer of knowledge and technologies," the head of the Ministry of Commerce and Industries of Panama, Ramón Martínez, told reporters after the Cabinet session on Tuesday. .

Martínez said that with the free trade agreement the Panamanian productive sector is strengthened, while also promoting Israeli companies to establish themselves in Panama.

He explained that the idea is that these Israeli companies, with their finished or semi-finished products, "use our special zones to export those products to the countries with which they have Free Trade Agreements, maintaining their origin in Israel and their tariff preferences" .

The agreement signed with Israel also allows Panama to "bring inputs from friendly countries, to elaborate our products here in industry and agribusiness, and, with rules of origin, export them as Panamanian products to Israel and other places."

"So the treaty benefits us on many points, in addition the pharmaceutical, agrotechnology, innovation and development sectors will be strengthened" with this free trade agreement, Martínez said.

The head of Commerce highlighted Israel as the country that has "one of the most competitive economies in the world, a country that is an example in its production and value chain."

This is the first Free Trade Agreement that Panama signs with a Middle Eastern country, and the third one that Israel signs with a Latin American country.