Next week I’ll be travelling to Ecuador to attend the FlorEcuador Agriflor show in Quito. Agriflor is the largest flower show in the Americas, and a venue for growers to show off the best of their wares. I’ll be blogging from Ecuador next week with highlights, but before starting that series I thought it would be worth covering some background on the Ecuadorian floral industry and, more specifically, the hot topic of the ATPDEA. Don’t let the acronym and the politics bore you – this issue affects every florist in the USA!
The Andean Trade Preference and Drug Eradication Act is a treaty that dates back a decade between the United States and four Latin American countries; Boliva, Peru, Colombia and Ecuador. The pact gives preferential trade status to many exports from these four Andean countries to promote economic agricultural growth by granting duty free status to these exports that are alternative crops to the illegal drug crop – cocaine.
Examples of some great successes are Chilean grapes, Bolivian fruits and vegetable and flowers from Colombia and Ecuador. Over the years President Bush excluded Bolivia from preferential trade status as the country was not proactively engaging in anti-drug enforcement and Peru signed a separate trade agreement with the United States. A broader trade agreement was reached with Columbia in 2006, but it didn’t come into effect until May of 2012. Now only Ecuador is covered by the pact which is set to expire in mid-2013. It is in the best interests of the United States that the treaty be renewed.
ATPDEA Benefits
Many have criticized this agreement as “one way trade pact” with the beneficiary being the Andean countries. They are wrong.
US companies enjoy open trade with our ATPDEA partners and sell millions and millions of dollars of seed, fertilizer and farm equipment to them. If the treaty is not renewed thousands of American jobs could be lost. In the floral industry within the United States tens of thousands of jobs in transportation, distribution and retail florists will be endangered if the act is not renewed.
American consumers benefit by having affordable beautiful fresh flowers available in their neighbourhoods all year long, and North American floral retailers have come to depend on a large volume of high quality reasonably priced flowers from Ecuador.
The Society of American Florists wants Americans to understand that this treaty is good for the American consumer as it provides reasonably priced flowers for them and is good for the American society in that it is an effective part of the solution of illegal drugs being sent to the United States.
Further, the economy of Ecuador is, to a large degree, dependent on floral exports to the United States even though for every dollar spent on flowers from these countries only 25 cents stays in them. Seventy-five cents of every dollar is kept in the United States. The treaty fosters a mutually beneficial relationship between the US and Ecuador and the ATPDEA should be not be allowed to expire.
Update: If you want to see Ecuadorian product remain duty-free, please consider signing this petition online.
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