Impacts of Bilateral Trade Agreements between the United States and Latin American Countries on Agri-Food Trade

Between 2004 and 2012, the United States enacted bilateral trade agreements with Chile, Peru, Panama, and Colombia. Using bilateral trade panel datasets of agri-food commodities, we estimate a structural gravity model to analyze the trade creation and trade diversion effects of these agreements. The agreements resulted in substantial increases in intramember trade for aggregate agri-food trade among member countries, ranging from 53.73% for the Chilean agreement to 354.03% for the Peruvian agreement. Substantial heterogeneity exists when the aggregate commodity is disaggregated and when US exports to and imports from the four Latin American countries are considered.