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US Commerce Secretary: Trade with Latin America Could Grow

by Celia Mendoza

   LIMA, PERU --

   VOA's Celia Mendoza interviewed U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross
   on the sidelines of the Summit of the Americas in Peru. This is an
   edited transcript of that interview.

   Question: Secretary Ross, tell us what the importance is for the United
   States to do business with Latin America, especially now that we have a
   global market and China is trying to come into the region. China has
   been arriving in the past few years, bringing more investment and
   starting to bring more goods and services to the region.

   Wilbur Ross: The U.S. has 12 of its foreign trade agreements, free
   trade agreements with Latin America. That is 12 out of the 20 that we
   have, so the majority of our trade arrangements are with Latin America.
   Second, Latin America exports far more to us than it does to China, and
   third, Latin America has a surplus with the U.S. and a deficit with
   China, in fact the surplus with us is almost twice the deficit that the
   region has with China.

   Question: In the past few weeks, we have talked about tariffs, we have
   talked about the exchange of goods, but recently we learned that
   Argentina might be one of those countries that might be buying pork
   from the United States. How does that affect that exchange?

   Ross: We've been having very constructive dialogues with Argentina.
   President [Mauricio] Macri and President [Donald] Trump have a very
   good working relationship and so we are exploring all sorts of things,
   bilateral things, things that Argentina can sell us, and things that we
   can sell Argentina.

   Question: You have mentioned that China is more protectionist than a
   free market country, explain how that could affect the relationship
   with Latin America as many countries try to broaden their market.

   Ross: What China is buying from Latin America is basically raw
   material, agricultural commodities, mineral resources, oil and things
   of that sort. They're buying very little in the way of high value ...
   manufactured goods. But in terms of the U.S., more than 70 percent of
   what we are buying is high value-added manufactured goods. That's much
   more stimulative for the Latin American economy, because you have the
   basic labor content from mining or ag (agriculture) plus the value
   added in the factories, so it has a more therapeutic effect and is also
   a favorable trade balance for Latin America versus a negative one.

   Question: Something you have mentioned in the past, which I think is
   very interesting, is how you have said that United States can be a
   better partner to Latin America because of ecommerce. How will that
   work? And how do you see that benefiting the region?

   Ross: Well, the region has relatively little trade within the region
   itself and the reason for that is the borders. The borders are
   complicated. One of the producers I spoke with at this conference said
   it's very hard to comply with the labeling requirements in each
   country, because each has a little different word. Well if the labeling
   requirements become ecommerce, e-labeling, rather than physical, that
   will facilitate trade among the Latin American countries. Further, it
   takes nine days and something like $800 to clear goods through customs
   on average. In the U.S. it takes a few hours and a couple of hundred
   dollars to clear a container [of goods]. Those are unnecessary barriers
   to trade and, worse than that, when you have complex regulations, that
   lends itself to corruption. The more delays, the more complexity, the
   more regulation, the easier it is for improprieties to spring in.

   Question: And since you bring that up, that is the subject of the
   Summit of the Americas: corruption and how that affects relations with
   those countries, because a lot of times American companies and the
   United States are not very confident that the companies that they are
   doing business with can keep up with the regulations of the United
   States.

   Ross: Well, the United States has the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,
   which prohibits American companies from giving bribes or any other form
   of corruption. So when Latin American government procurement agents
   deal with an American company, they know they are relatively safe from
   problems like the Odebrecht situation. I think Odebrecht is going to be
   a turning point for Latin America. I believe all the public opinion
   polls say that the public is insisting on less corruption, and the way
   to deal with corruption is to have voluntary standards worked out with
   the regulators. We learn today about self-regulation by four nations of
   medical devices, including quite a few practitioners, quite a few
   countries, and I believe the next one will be pharmaceuticals and the
   one after that will be construction, that is a good thing, the more
   transparency, the less corruption.

   Question: Right now we have negotiations between Canada, the United
   States and Mexico. How do you see those conversations going, and are we
   close to a final deal? We have heard this morning that President Trump
   might be thinking about coming back to the trans-Pacific agreement,
   which Peru was part of the negotiations, as well as some of the other
   countries. Is that a possibility in the future?

   Ross: Well, those are two very different questions. On NAFTA, there
   have now been about eight sessions, eight formal sessions. A lot of the
   easy issues have been resolved. They're now working on the more
   difficult issues and that was a deliberate system. The idea was let's
   get out of the way the easy things, let's build some momentum toward
   the more difficult ones. So within the next month or two we should know
   pretty well whether we'll have a reasonably quick deal or whether it
   will come after the elections that are coming up in the third and
   fourth quarters.

   Question: In terms of the Pacific alliance, for now is a negotiation
   being considered?

   Ross: Well, I've learned in this conference that there are much
   friendlier relations between the Pacific Alliance and [South American
   trade bloc] Mercosur, than there have been before, partly because the
   change in government in Argentina and also in Brazil. If those two
   could get together, on a less protectionist basis, you'd have a huge
   powerful trading bloc that could be a real factor globally. So, I think
   it will be in everyone's interest, longer term, to encourage that
   development.

   Question: Finally, Venezuela is a big subject during this conference
   not because it is on the agenda but in the surroundings of the
   conference. Just a few minutes ago, Vice President [Mike] Pence
   announced $60 million for countries that are taking refugees from
   Venezuela. But in terms of the economy, Venezuela has levels never seen
   in the region. Do you think that could affect the other countries? What
   do you think could happen there?

   Ross: Venezuela is abusing its population and that is not a
   satisfactory thing to happen. We are grateful to the Lima group for
   their support of our actions against Venezuela, and I think that is
   very good and shows the partnership spirit. The vice president's
   announcement about giving funding to the countries that have taken in
   refugees, our intention is not to burden those countries, our burden is
   to try to deal with the problems in Venezuela."

   Question: What do you think could happen in the next year or two in
   terms of relations between the U.S. and Latin America countries,
   because we have many presidents on the way out. The Mexican president