The US is aggressively working through free trade negotiations with a number of countries and has just concluded a sixth round of talks with Thailand. South Korea is also keen to be added to the increasingly longer list of countries. However, the path from negotiating to implementation is often long and incorporates tight Rules of Origin for textile and apparel exporters.
Free Trade Agreements or FTA's are tricky things requiring a whole range of meetings and negotiations between two or more countries wishing to establish favourable trading relationships.
US FTA roadmap
The US has been busy over the past five years attempting to increase the number of FTA's it has with trading partners and the Bush administration is particularly interested in establishing a Middle East FTA by 2013.
So far, FTA's have been concluded with Jordan, Morocco and Bahrain with Oman not far behind.
Negotiations are currently underway with the United Arab Emirates whilst Egypt has entered into preliminary discussions laying the groundwork for full-blown FTA negotiations.
Discussions with other countries in the region are at the planning stages in Washington.
In total, the US Trade Representative, Rob Portman, is working on FTA's with 10 countries.
South Korea has also been vying to join the growing US FTA list and latest discussions with Seoul appear to have made some progress towards establishing formal FTA negotiations.
Washington is studying South Korea's latest proposals aimed at resolving remaining issues that have prevented progress in talks namely import barriers on films and its US beef ban.
However, insiders have confidently predicted formal negotiations will shortly be announced.
Thailand disagreements
A sixth round of talks between the US and Thailand have last week ended against the backdrop of fierce protests against trade liberalisation.
Is is still far from clear as to whether the talks, hoped to be concluded in the spring, will eventually be successful.
A statement Friday by Barbara Weisel who has been leading the US negotiating team confirmed progress had been made but much work still remains to be done.
Scrutiny of the negotiations will now take place in Washington to analyse exactly how far the talks have gone.
Aside from the concerns raised by Thailand over tariff elimination, the US claims the FTA would be good news for the Thai textile and apparel sector.
"We anticipate increased exports for Thai producers in a wide range of products, from consumer products and textiles and apparel to electrical machinery and medical equipment," Ms Weisel confirmed.
Rules of Origin
A complicated aspect to FTA's for the textile sector is the problematic area of Rules of Origin (RoO).
This requirement is usally thrown in by Washington to insist that textile and apparel produce qualifying for duty-free US access needs to contain certain threshold of locally, regional or US made components.
This is specifically designed to eliminate the use of material from strong exporters such as China.
The FTA with Peru, awaiting US Congress ratification, is a good example of this.
Peruvian exports must contain only yarn and fabric produced within either its own borders, the US or other South American nations.
It cannot therefore use cheaper imports from other countries such as Bangladesh or China for example and could dampen hopes of significantly increasing exports to the US.
FTA process
The process of the FTA from project to legal implementation is also a long and sometimes hazardous road and can take several years of intense negotiations before being finalised.
The timing of which also depends on whether proposals from one country meet resistance from another, as with Thailand last week, and this can sometimes see talks stretched out for a long period before compromise is reached.
After a proposal is made, comments are invited from the general public before the real negotiations go ahead.
If agreement is reached by both parties, the accord is mutually signed before passing to the respective governments for ratification.
In the case of the US, it first passes to Congress before President Bush adds his name thus making it law.
