Do US PTAs pave the way for subsidized exports?
I question Oxfam’s critique of the (yet-to-be-implemented) preferential trade agreement between Peru and United States. Oxfam’s Song of the Sirens report alleges: According to the agreements signed, Colombia and Peru ‘shall not apply any price band system to agricultural goods imported from the United States’, thereby leaving national producers unprotected and exposed to the mercy of duty-free US imports. US insistence on the dismantling of the price band system leaves the Andean countries with no alternative means of protection to counteract the effects of US subsidies [emphasis added]. It is also further evidence of double standards in US foreign trade policy. Oxfam believes that, insofar as the USA continues to provide extensive subsidies which lead to unfair trade practices, it should uphold the protection mechanisms used by developing countries to safeguard their most vulnerable domestic sectors. The agreement’s Chapter 8, Section B: 1. Each Party retains its rights and obligation
