FTA Success Stories

CAFTA-DR Success Stories

The HACH Company
The HACH Company, located in Loveland, Colorado, provides advanced analytical water quality instrumentation and systems and technical support for water quality testing.  International Sales Director Hermes Gonzalez participated in the CAFTA Business Development Mission led by Secretary Gutierrez in October 2005, the first trade mission to the region following the approval of the agreement by the U.S. Congress that summer.  The U.S. Commercial Service in Central America and the Denver Export Assistant Center provided additional follow-up support to HACH’s marketing efforts.  The company reports nearly $92,000 in export sales during 2006 to water and environmental authorities in Guatemala and El Salvador.  CAFTA secures duty-free treatment for laboratory and analytical instrumentation, which should continue to make the region an attractive market for the products supplied by the HACH Company. 

Softee Supreme Diaper Corporation
Softee Supreme Diaper Corporation, an SME located in Decatur, Georgia, is a manufacturer and marketer of quality disposable baby diapers.  The Commercial Service in Central America and the Atlanta Export Assistance Center helped introduce the company to potential buyers in the CAFTA region.  Softee Supreme has benefited from the tariff reduction as a result of CAFTA - the 15 percent tariff in Central America for baby diapers was eliminated immediately for some countries and is being phased out for the rest.  The company has reported export sales in 2006 of several hundred thousand dollars to distributors in CAFTA markets.

PriceSmart
PriceSmart Inc., headquartered in San Diego, California, owns and operates U.S.-style membership shopping warehouse clubs in Central America and the Caribbean, selling high quality merchandise at low prices to PriceSmart members.  CAFTA-DR has provided a strong boost to PriceSmart's sales in Central America.  For example, at the two warehouse clubs in El Salvador, sales of half of the top twenty U.S. imports have increased by 30 percent or more, with the increase significantly correlated to duty savings resulting from CAFTA-DR.  Not only is PriceSmart’s business benefiting from CAFTA-DR, but even more Central American consumers are enjoying quality products at even lower prices.

U.S.-Chile FTA Success Stories

Endress & Hauser Inc.
The implementation of the U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was one factor that contributed to Endress & Hauser’s decision to shift production of its exports to Chile from its European plant to its plant in Greenwood, Indiana.  By exporting American-made products from the United States, Endress & Hauser is now able to take advantage of the duty-free benefits afforded by the FTA.  Endress & Hauser is a global leader in the provision of measurement instrumentation, services and solutions for industrial process engineering.  It produces instruments that measure level, flow, pressure and temperature, as well as a range of analytical instrumentation measuring variables in water quality such as pH/ORP, conductivity and dissolved oxygen.  These instruments are now used in some of Chile’s water treatment plants to analyze the amount of total organic carbon present in the water.  Since it began exporting to Chile in February 2006, the company has achieved sales of over $2 million.  Endress & Hauser is now considering increasing the line of products it exports from the United States to Chile.   

ProMark Associates, Inc.
The U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement (FTA) opened the Chilean market to ProMark Associates, Inc., a small, family-owned business located in Skokie, Illinois.  ProMark manufactures air purification products, including gas phase filtration media and equipment, designed to improve the indoor air quality of industrial manufacturers.  Under the FTA, environmental technology products such as those sold by ProMark became duty-free immediately upon implementation.   ProMark began selling its products to the Chilean mining sector in November 2005, and it hopes to begin selling its products to the Chilean produce sector shortly.  Both of these sectors are experiencing their own tremendous growth in exports to the United States due in part to duty-free benefits under the FTA.  In the mining sector, ProMark’s equipment treats and removes toxic and corrosive gases generated during the mining process.  In the produce sector, ProMark’s gas filtration equipment removes gases from the chambers where fruit is stored to retard spoilage before packaging.  Exports have helped put the company on track to nearly double the roughly $800,000 in revenues it generated in 2006.  ProMark expects that its sales to Chile alone will reach roughly $250,000 in 2007.  

Occidental Chemical (OxyChile)
One supplier of U.S. products that has seen its sales figures positively impacted by the implementation of the U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is Occidental Chemical Chile (OxyChile), a firm that imports caustic soda from its Dallas-based parent company.  Sales of imported caustic soda increased by 35 percent when comparing 2005-2006 figures to the 4-year average from 2001-2004.  According to general manager Artie Lynnworth, this growth reflects the expansion of OxyChile’s major clients, Chile's leading forestry companies.  Caustic soda is a basic chemical used by the cellulose industry to "digest" the wood from trees as a first step in making pulp for the paper industry.  Under the FTA, caustic soda became duty-free immediately upon implementation.  OxyChile attributes an important part of its sales growth to the FTA.  The gain for OxyChile, says Lynnworth, is that, at least regarding import duties, the FTA has put the company on a more level playing field with potential competing suppliers from Argentina and Peru.

American Screw and Barrel, Inc. (AS&B)
American Screw and Barrel, Inc. (AS&B), located in Gardner, Massachusetts, was not present in the Chilean market before the U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement (FTA) came into effect.  AS&B is a supplier of elements for plastics extrusion machinery, which is used to manufacture items such as tubing, weather stripping, window frames and adhesive tape.  AS&B developed a relationship with the Chilean company Parodi Hermanos y Cia. in 2003, but the two companies did not begin transactions until 2005, after the FTA took effect and AS&B products became duty-free.  In November 2005, AS&B sold a shipment of metal screws to Parodi Hermanos, and, thanks to the FTA, Parodi Hermanos did not have to pay import tariffs on the shipment.  The FTA ensured AS&B's competitiveness in Chile, and to date, AS&B remains successful in the Chilean market.

Gundlach, Division of J.M.J. Industries Inc.
Gundlach, Division of J.M.J. Industries Inc., located in Belleville, Illinois, manufactures crushers used for mining and mineral processing, with applications ranging from aluminum dross to zinc sinter. When Gundlach expressed an interest in shipping to Chile, the Peoria U.S. Export Assistance Center provided market research reports on the benefits of the U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement, including information on tariffs and trade. This information confirmed that Gundlach’s crushers would be duty-free under the FTA, giving the company an added advantage when selling to Chile. Gundlach credits the FTA market research reports with making a positive impact on the company’s exports, including a recent $235,000 sale to Chile.

Caterpillar Inc.
For Caterpillar, the benefits of free trade agreements are very real. The U.S.-Chile FTA immediately eliminated all Chilean tariffs on Caterpillar's U.S.-made products. With Chile's market completely open, Caterpillar was well positioned to fully benefit from increased demand resulting from Chile's current mining boom. As a result, Caterpillar's U.S. exports to Chile nearly doubled, making Chile the company's fifith largest U.S. export market.

Karsten Manufacturing Company
The U.S.-Chile FTA has helped Karsten Manufacturing Company increase sales in what was already a good market for the company. Karsten Manufacturing, located in Phoenix, Arizona, is a leading golf club maker better known by its brand name of PING. Under the FTA, Chilean duties on PING golf clubs were immediately reduced from six percent to zero in 2004. By attending an FTA seminar at the Phoenix Export Assistance Center, Karsten Manufacturing was able to confirm that it was filling out documentation correctly in order to maximize the benefits offered by the FTA. Thanks to the agreement, the PING distributor in Chile now pays less to bring PING equipment into Chile, which in turn reduced the end price to consumers and increased sales. Karsten Manufacturing Company now sends a substantial shipment of PING golf clubs to Chile on a bimonthly basis.

Sun Pacific Shippers Sales
With the FTA, Sun Pacific Shippers Sales of Los Angeles, California, and leading Chilean fruit exporter Subsole, Exportadora de Frutas, found it attractive to export California-grown citrus to meet market demand during Chile’s off-season, as the FTA immediately reduced Chilean duties on products such as clementines from six percent to zero. After discussions with Sun Pacific, Subsole agreed to import clementines as a test case for the Chilean market. The idea was a success; with the assistance of the U.S. Foreign Commercial Service in Santiago, $42,000 of Sun Pacific’s “California Cuties” reached Chilean supermarkets in March, and the companies have since met to discuss future opportunities. The fact that California and Chile have opposite growing seasons, combined with new market access afforded by the FTA, holds promise for continued U.S. fresh fruit exports to the Chilean market.

Usibelli Coal Mine
Family-owned Usibelli Coal Mine in Healy, Alaska is helping to keep the lights on in Chile. Recent increases in the price and demand for natural gas have impacted its supply to Chile, forcing a number of Chilean power producers to use alternative fuels to generate power. Many power producers have decided to bridge the gap with coal and diesel fuel generation. Usibelli was approached by the international resource trading company Glencore, Ltd. as a potential coal supplier, and it subsequently started shipping coal to various Chilean power plants for the first time in 2004. Usibelli has already shipped approximately 200,000 metric tons of Alaskan coal to Chile. U.S.-mined coal is duty free under the FTA, which has made sourcing from the United States an attractive new option for Chilean power companies.

Project Development International (PDI)
Roberto Sanchez, Program Manager for Project Development International (PDI), believes his company’s success in Chile is attributable to the FTA. Started in 1984 in Clearwater, Florida, PDI is a small company of eighteen professional employees that is dedicated to innovative and effective management services for the construction industry. The company has found success helping clients complete their projects on time and within budget. With the assistance of the U.S. Commercial Service staff in Santiago, PDI recently signed a representation agreement with Integra Proyectos, a Chilean consultancy firm based in Santiago. Mr. Sanchez believes the FTA facilitated the partnership with Integra and will make it easier for PDI to export its services. Working with PDI, Integra is currently bidding on various construction projects in Chile, including a military hospital.

IMPEX
Richard Grana, president of IMPEX, was among the first Kentucky exporters to benefit from the new trade agreement with Chile. In fact, by August 2004, Mr. Grana had already sold more products to Chile than he had sold in all of 2003 to the country. IMPEX, located in rural Paducah, Kentucky, is an export management company that markets conveyor systems and environmental technologies for U.S. manufacturers. The Chilean mining sector uses the products marketed by IMPEX to complete maintenance and improvement projects. With some technical guidance on the FTA provided by the Louisville U.S. Export Assistance Center, Mr. Grana found that his products became duty-free immediately under the agreement, which enabled him to increase sales in what was already a good market for his firm. The recent rise in the price of copper has made Chile’s mining sector all the more active, and Mr. Grana feels confident that with the FTA in place his sales will continue to increase as well.