Caribbean & Central America - June 2011 (ISSN 1741-4458)

FTA with US hits a snag. Recent hopes regarding the ratification of the US-Panama FTA [RC-11-05] are now proving premature following a new obstacle which has emerged as a result of domestic US politics. Democrats in congress are now conditioning their backing of the FTA (along with those with Colombia and South Korea) on the Republicans’ vote in favour of the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) programme, which provides support for US workers affected by the implementation of FTAs. The Obama 2009 TAA expired in February. The Republicans, who assumed control of the lower house in January following the 2010 midterms, want to extend the 2002 TAA, which was drawn up by the George W. Bush administration. The Democrats, however, are pushing for the 2009 TAA, which was expanded to include service industry workers and those whose jobs have moved to countries that do not have FTAs with the US.  With the country in a pre-electoral year, and both sides likely to become more intransigent as a result, fresh doubts have emerged as to whether the FTAs will be ratified before the August 2011 deadline.

Inflation: In April inflation was 1.06%, pushing the annual rate to 6.3%, a level not seen for at least two years. The main reason for the increase was higher oil prices. Inflation in 2010 was 3.5%, up from 2.4% the previous year.