Colombian President Álvaro Uribe and key Western Hemisphere ministers explored issues at the forefront of the U.S.-Western Hemisphere agenda during the 37th Annual Washington Conference on the Americas. View a pictorial and summary of the conference.

Can Peru maintain its robust economic growth? Minister Carranza Ugarte discusses future economic scenarios along with the importance of investment in social development and passage of the U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement.

In testimony to the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, COA Vice President Eric Farnsworth calls on Congress to pass the pending bilateral trade agreement and re-authorize Plan Colombia. “The time to act is now” to support one of the strongest U.S. allies in the region.

Michael Bomba, a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin, sees the estimated $5.2 billion canal improvement project as a natural response to significant developments in maritime trade over the past two decades. A third set of locks will allow for increased ship traffic along this strategic waterway.

Ambassador Veroneau discusses labor standards in pending hemispheric free-trade agreements and looks more broadly at trade promotion with Brazil and the rest of the Americas. How does Latin America’s developing trade relationship with Asia affect U.S. interests?

Topics in this issue: U.S. Free-Trade Agreements with Colombia, Peru and Panama
• Market access
• Services and investment
• Labor
• Export growth

“When you look at the statistics, we have lost jobs to China and India—countries where we do not have a freetrade agreement. So, it is not the free-trade agreements that cause the problem.”