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Miami-Colombia Annual Report: Trade with No. 4 trade partner Colombia blooms

July 27th, 2006

Flowers lead the way as trade jumps 11 percent with the promise of greater growth ahead.

Colombian flowers continue flowing into South Florida’s airports, leading a $3.9 billion trade exchange that swelled 11 percent in 2005 and seems set to grow even more this year.

Some $405 million in roses, lilies, orchids, snapdragons, carnations and alstroemerias accounted for 25 percent of South Florida’s imports from Colombia last year. That was $5 million less than in 2004.

Total imports were flat when compared to a year earlier, reaching just $1.7 billion, but South Florida exports to the South American country jumped more than 21 percent to end the year at $.2.2 billion.

Colombia’s economy has been on an upward path and the landslide re-election of President Alvaro Uribe in late May promised political stability. That has experts predicting that business between Florida and Colombia will expand. Already in the first quarter of 2006 overall trade between the two grew 9.4 percent compared to the first three months of 2005.

Manny Mencia, Enterprise Florida’s senior vice president of international trade and business development expects bilateral trade to gain new energy once the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement is signed. He said negotiations are almost concluded with a few technical issues pending before Congresses in both countries. The government’s fast-track Trade Promotion Authority, which expedites trade agreements, expires at the end of December.

“I am very optimistic with Colombia,” said Mencia. “We could see the treaty being signed in 2007 or perhaps sooner. There are some minor details on some agricultural issues. Additionally, once it is voted in the Colombian Congress, President Uribe has the political clout and the will.”

Mencia said U.S. trade with Chile has grown dramatically since January 2004 when a U.S. free trade accord with the South American country took effect

Under the proposed free-trade accord, 80 percent of Colombian products would enter the United States free of duties and quota restrictions. Remaining tariffs would be phased out over 10 years. Many Colombian products currently enter the United States with tariff exemptions under the Andean Trade Preference and Drug Eradication Act, but that measure expires at the end of the year.

As an example of the impact of such trade agreements, U.S. imports of apparel from Colombia have gone up 39 percent since AFTDEA took force.

Apparel played an important role in the Miami Custom District’s trade exchange with Colombia last year. South Florida imports of men’s suits from Colombia reached nearly $222 million, up from $165 million a year earlier. Imports of women’s blazers fell 27 percent to close the year at $79 million, but shipments of women’s socks and pantyhose increased 69 percent to more than $18 million.

Gold was the second most important import, although it fell 29 percent in value when compared to 2004 to $297 million. However, that was offset in part by the jump in value of petroleum imports from Colombia. They skyrocketed last year, rising 505 percent to reach $103 million. In the roster of foreign oil suppliers to the United States, Colombia ranks No. 14.

Imports of Colombian coffee also perked up, leaping 178 percent to surpass $39 million.

On the export side, tech products and manufactured goods dominated. South Florida shipped more than $232 million in computers and $158 million in computer parts to Colombia last year. Both reflected substantial gains when compared to a year earlier. Aircrafts parts jumped 25 percent to nearly $91 million while exports of regional jet parts rose almost 35 percent to more than $30 million.

Last year’s $55.5 million in exports of surgical instruments reflected by 55 percent jump from 2004.

The fastest-growing exports to Colombia in 2005 included pharmaceuticals, which more than doubled to close the year at nearly $28 million. Automobile exports also swelled dramatically to more than $26 million in 2005, compared with $12.5 million a year earlier.