Export Opportunities for Valle del Cauca Department within theColombia-Canada Trade Agreement: The Case of the Sugar Sector

Abstract

The Free Trade Agreement signed by Canada and Colombia is a landmark in their integration process, creating new trade conditions in favor of Colombia. The aim of this article is to shed light on the competitiveness of Valle del Cauca’s sugar sector. It describes the bilateral trade between the department of Valle del Cauca and Canada, and identifies which products stand a good chance to be exported to the Canadian market. In order to do this, the Revealed Comparative Advantage indexes, Relative Trade Balance, and Import intensity index are calculated. Such indexes were applied to the 14 subheadings tariff making up the tariff chapter 17, «Sugars», between 2005 and 2008. In spite of a persistent trade deficit with Canada, two subheadings, «Raw Can Sugar» and «Glucose and Glucose Syrup», are potentially competitive considering the measurement of the three measures and the improved conditions offered by the Free Trade Agreement.