Small and medium businesses in Colorado and other states stand to benefit the most if the country can seal two large-scale trade agreements with partners along the Pacific Rim and in Europe, according to a report Thursday from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
“Large businesses can always hire people to navigate their way through different custom procedures and border measures,” said U.S. trade representative Michael Froman. “Small businesses find the complexity of different custom processes bewildering.”
Froman is part of a full-court press by the Obama administration to boost congressional and public support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or T-TIP.
The agreements are designed to lower tariffs and other trade barriers hampering the sale of U.S. goods abroad, Froman said. Lower barriers will allow small and specialized firms such as Shotcrete Technologies of Idaho Springs to more easily access foreign markets.
The maker of robotic arms for spraying concrete has seen exports rise from 15 percent of its sales in the 1990s to nearly half of all revenues, according to , a supporter of the agreements.
Froman also argues that the TPP is the first trade agreement to take on the issue of the digital economy and the free flow of data and products purchased online across borders.
But opponents argue that the two trade agreements are being negotiated in secret and headed for fast-track approval in Congress, limiting the ability to add safeguards for consumers and workers.
“Big corporations are leading the charge, and I have very little faith that the Pfizers of the world are looking out for the little guys,” said Josh Downey, president of the Denver Area Labor Federation.
Previous trade agreements have driven higher-paying U.S. manufacturing jobs abroad, leaving lower-paying service jobs to fill the void and , Downey said.
About 5,700 Colorado companies exported $8.4 billion of goods last year, which in turn supported 43,615 jobs, according to the “United States of Trade” report.
Of those exports, about $4 billion, or just under half, went to countries participating in the TPP agreement, a group that includes Canada and Mexico, Colorado’s two largest trading partners.
China, an increasingly important trading partner for the state, initially was opposed to the agreement but now watches from the sidelines.
Another $1.4 billion, or 17 percent, of Colorado exports went to T-TIP partners last year.
While Colorado exports are up 43 percent since 2009, they are up only 5.2 percent since 2006 and actually down from last year, which adds to the sense that the state is running to stand still when it comes to making inroads abroad.
Computer and electronic products, which are high-value exports, remain the state’s top sellers — at $2 billion last year. But as recently as 2006, they accounted for $4 billion of Colorado exports.
After computer and electronic products, Colorado’s biggest exports include processed foods, at $1.6 billion; machinery, at $958 million; and chemicals, at $837 million.
Aldo Svaldi: 303-954-1410, asvaldi@ denverpost.com or twitter.com/aldosvaldi
