U.S. Department of State Economic and Commercial Officer Natalie van der Horst spoke of trade policy in Latin America with UT students at the Baker Center on Tuesday.
Van der Horst stressed the importance of expanding the trade of U.S. goods and services in Latin America through free trade agreements. Two of the three current pending agreements are in Panama and Columbia.
“Right now — the United States, the White House, the State Department — we’re working very closely with Congress trying to get those agreements approved by the U.S. Congress so that they can be implemented and so that U.S. companies and U.S. workers can benefit from those agreements”, van der Horst said.
As the U.S. economy continues to decline, State Department officials are looking at growing economies to try to reverse the current recession.
“Latin America represents an already significant and a growing market for the United States,” van der Horst said. “In Latin America, they’ve actually had GDP growth numbers that are significantly higher from the United States, and they want to buy.”
Many Americans believe that unemployment rate is one of the nation’s biggest issues. Van der Horst sees the Latin American market as a potential catalyst to decrease these rates.
“The Latin American market is huge and they are going to be growing and growing and growing over the next couple of years,” van der Horst said. “As U.S. companies export more to this growing market, that means more U.S. jobs, more U.S. income, greater GDP growth here in the United States so directly benefits the American household.”
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http://utdailybeacon.com/news/2011/sep/23/latin-america-presents-possibilities/
