Trade Background, Issues & Agreements
| “Our interest will be to throw open the doors of commerce, and to knock off all its shackles, giving perfect freedom to all persons for the vent [sale] of whatever they may choose to bring into our ports, and asking the same in theirs.” -Thomas Jefferson |
Trade Background
Trade Issues
There are numerous trade issues that affect the United States and consequently, California. Each region and issue page below gives an overview, and links to related organizations and documents.
- AGOA
- APEC
- BRICS
- China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)
- Climate Change
- Export Control Reform
- Export-Import Bank of the US
- Federal Legislation – International Trade Related
- Generalized System of Preferences
- Indo-Pacific Economic Framework
- National Export Initiative
- Ports
- Protectionism / Buy American
- Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)
- Russia- Permanent Normal Trade Relations
- Three Seas Initiative
- Tariffs
- Tourism / Visa / Customs / Immigration
- Trade Adjustment Assistance Program
- Trade Promotion Authority
- World Trade Organization
Trade Agreements
There are numerous trade agreements that are currently in effect with the United States. Each free trade agreement page below gives an overview, and links to related organizations and documents.
- USMCA (U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement)
- NAFTA
- Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
- Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement / CPTPP
- U.S.-Australia Free Trade Agreement
- U.S.-Central American Free Trade Agreement
- U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement
- U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement
- U.S.-Ecuador Free Trade Agreement
- U.S.-European Union Free Trade Agreement
- U.S.-Hungary Trade Relations
- U.S.-Japan Free Trade Agreement
- U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement
- U.S.-Kenya Free Trade Agreement
- U.S. Malaysia Free Trade Agreement
- U.S.-Middle East Free Trade Agreements
- U.S.-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement
- U.S.-Panama Free Trade Agreement
- U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement
- U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreement
- U.S.-Southern African Customs Union Free Trade Agreement
- U.S.-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement
- U.S.-Taiwan Free Trade Agreement
- U.S.-Thailand Free Trade Agreement Business Coalition
- U.S.-United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement
Fun Fact
Chambers of Commerce Go International
Posted by Global Reach on May 10, 2011
From the earliest days, international trade has been a major concern for local chambers of commerce. The first U.S. chamber was born in 1768 in New York out of struggles with the Stamp Act. Shortly afterward, in 1773, the Charleston Chamber of Commerce was formed to help land British tea safely on shore. In 1819, the Savannah Chamber’s leading members sent the first steamship across the Atlantic. Other chambers lobbied for a railroad and a canal across Panama, helped lay the first transatlantic telegraph cables, and even named and financed Lindbergh’s plane, The Spirit of Saint Louis, for its world-shrinking trip across the ocean in 1927.
Commerce – not surprisingly – is in the institutional bones of chambers of commerce.