Washington -- The Bush administration's progress on expanding trade in the Western Hemisphere has been quite impressive, and the United States hopes to have free-trade agreements with every country on the west coast of North, South and Central America in the near future, according to Regina Vargo, assistant U.S. trade representative (USTR) for the Americas.

In September 9 remarks to the Hispanic Bar Association and Hispanic Council on Foreign Relations, Vargo outlined progress in advancing the U.S. trade agenda in the Western Hemisphere. Of the 25 nations with which the United States has recently concluded -- or is conducting -- free-trade talks, 13 are in the Americas, she pointed out.

Vargo said that the passage of presidential trade-promotion authority (TPA) in 2002 was an important first step in advancing the U.S. hemispheric trade agenda, opening the door for the 2003 U.S. trade agreement with Chile. The U.S.-Chile accord, she indicated, has yielded favorable results while also establishing a framework for state-of-the art, 21st-century trade agreements.

With the U.S.-Chile free-trade agreement in place, U.S. exports to Chile grew twice as fast as U.S. exports to the rest of the world during the first three months of 2004. Vargo noted that Chile is also experiencing strong U.S. sales, with 1,200 Chilean companies exporting nearly 1,000 different products to the United States.

The USTR official indicated that trade negotiators worked from the U.S.-Chile model in crafting the U.S. trade agreement with Central America and the Dominican Republic (DR-CAFTA), with improvements in some areas such as stronger anti-corruption measures. She said the Bush administration is now working with U.S. congressional leadership to identify the best timing for consideration of the DR-CAFTA that was signed on August 5.

Upon entry into force, the DR-CAFTA will significantly cut trade barriers and expand regional opportunities for the workers, manufacturers, consumers, farmers, ranchers and service providers of all seven countries involved, Vargo said.

The enactment of legislation to implement the DR-CAFTA should bolster an already "very vigorous and balanced two-way relationship," Vargo added. She observed that in 2003, the United States exported $15 billion of goods to the Dominican Republic and Central America -- making the DR-CAFTA trading bloc the United States' second-largest trading partner in Latin America, after Mexico. Two-way trade between DR-CAFTA nations and the United States was $32 billion in 2003, Vargo noted.

The DR-CAFTA is a strong commercial agreement, she said, adding the trade agreement is not only about trade, but is also about "hope, opportunity and democracy."

"The DR-CAFTA represents an opportunity for Central America to embrace a transparent, rules-based system that will encourage economic growth and development," Vargo said.

Concomitantly, she added that the agreement "will promote the indispensable building blocks of a free society -- respect for the rule of law, private property rights, competition, and accountable institutions of government. ... These values will in turn reinforce the habits and institutions of democracy that Central America has struggled to create."

In addition to working to secure passage of the DR-CAFTA, Vargo said, U.S. trade officials are also currently engaged in trade talks with Panama and the Andean nations of Colombia, Peru and Ecuador. She said that each negotiation presents new situations and challenges, but with good progress, the United States hopes to have free-trade agreements with every country on the west coast of North, Central and South America relatively soon.

The USTR official said that the passage of these hemispheric trade agreements would be "quite an accomplishment" and would bring the United States closer to securing a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) that will bring together all the nations of the Americas, absent Cuba.

Vargo said the passage of the FTAA remains a priority for the United States, but acknowledged that hemispheric trade officials "have not found the magic formula to move forward on that negotiation."

She acknowledged that the United States and Brazil, co-chairs of the FTAA talks, still have "very strong differences" as to what to include in the FTAA. Vargo explained that Brazil remains very focused on the market-access component of the FTAA talks, while the United States prefers a more comprehensive and rules-based agreement.