Panama President Laurentino Cortizo said he intends to immediately restart negotiations with China over a free trade agreement, after conversations were put on hold during the pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this moment, we are planning to again begin negotiations with China for a trade agreement\u2014now,\u201d Cortizo said during an interview at Bloomberg\u2019s New Economy Gateway Latin America in Panama City. He didn\u2019t provide further specifics on the timing of the negotiations.<\/p>\n
Cortizo, who took office in 2019, said he will seek bigger concessions than previous Panamanian administrations attempted to get from Asia\u2019s largest economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to push more, for example, on agricultural products\u2014our access to our agricultural products to the China market,\u201d Cortizo said on Wednesday. \u201cOur style of negotiation is a little bit different from the past government.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cortizo is promoting Panama\u2019s recovery from the pandemic. The economy posted 15% growth last year, one of biggest leaps in Latin America. It also returned to international capital markets earlier this year, issuing $2.5 billion of dollar bonds.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, inflation remains below 3%, much lower than most regional peers, as the dollar-denominated economy is shielded from currency losses seen across much of Latin America.<\/p>\n
Despite Panama\u2019s attempts to strengthen ties with China, Cortizo made clear that his country\u2019s top ally remains the US.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur main partner is the USA, our strategic partner is the USA,\u201d Cortizo said. \u201cThe US is the main user of the Panama Canal. The second main user of the Panama Canal is China. So we do have a very important relationship with both countries.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Panama President Laurentino Cortizo said he intends to immediately restart negotiations with China over a free trade agreement,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[8,40,12,241,42,219,11,249,7,246,44,260],"class_list":["post-32623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-articles-panama-perpsective","tag-azuero-penninsula","tag-beach","tag-boquete","tag-boquete-real-estate","tag-estate-homes-in-panama","tag-move-to-panama","tag-offshore-real-estate","tag-panama-offshore-real-estate","tag-panama-real-estate","tag-relocate-to-panama","tag-travel-to-panama","tag-travel-to-panama-rent-in-boquete"],"yoast_head":"\n