On Tuesday, the World Trade Organization (WTO) granted an appellate ruling in favor of Panama against Colombia. The ruling pertained to Colombia’s use of high tariffs on imported textiles, clothing, and shoes as part of a plan to address alleged money laundering.
Panama, the nation at the center of a global financial scandal, has vowed to deepen its ties to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in order to create greater transparency and avoid future such scandals. The nation will seek to provide greater tax regulation in line with the OECD’s guidelines, offering enhanced openness and fewer incentives for tax evaders from other countries.
Panama is an upper middle-income economies coming under the Latin American and the Caribbean region as to the classification made by the World Bank on the basis of income and region for the year 2006.
A well-developed services sector has brought tremendous success for the country’s economy. The services sector constitutes around 80% of the total GDP.
Major agricultural products in the country are bananas, cocoa, crop, coffee and pineapples. Important industries in the country are cement, sugar milling, petroleum, international banking and construction.
Supporting the economy of Panama is the services sector, which actually accounts for around 80% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product. As a part of this sector are financial institutions, banks, and financial services. In addition to this, the growing services sector includes insurance, flagship registry, container ports, transportation, tourism, and the Colon Free Zone. With the expansion of the famous Panama Canal scheduled to complete in 2014, the GDP will be boosted even more by doubling the canal’s ability to allow ships to pass through.
