Florida's International Trade with Latin American
Florida Trade Facts:
Free Trade:
- Free Trade Agreements have proven to be one of the best ways to open up foreign markets to U.S. trade.
- The U.S. has implemented trade agreements with several of Florida's key trading partners.
- Prior to the global economic downturn, these agreements were beginning to show positive results in the state's two-way trade and continue to offer promising examples of what free-trade agreements can mean to Florida.
- The U.S. signed the DR-CAFTA Agreement with Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic in 2005; but the effects of its implementation have been slow, not only because of the complexities of the agreement, but also because of the effects on the region's apparel trade by the elimination of World Trade Organization quotas.
- In 2011, trade with the six DR-CAFTA countries showed a 48.6 percent increase over the 2005 level, reaching $22.0 billion.
- With a 29.1 percent increase in 2010, Chile's trade with Florida again totaled $5.4 billion and the country retained its seventh position among the state's trading partners, and at $6.9 billion in 2011, has moved into sixth place.
- In 2007, the Senate ratified a new free trade agreement with Peru, whose trade with Florida has expanded by $1 billion since that time, going from $2.1 billion in 2007 to $3.2 billion in 2011.
- The U.S. has also signed trade agreements with Colombia, South Korea, and Panama; but ratification by Congress is required before these agreements will take effect.
- Colombia, in particular, has become one of Florida's major two-way trading partners.
NAFTA:
- Signed in 1994, the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the world's largest free-trade area, is now 17 years old.
- In 2011, Florida's trade with its NAFTA partners, Mexico and Canada, totaled $6.5 billion, a 44.4 percent increase over the $4.5 billion in 2008.
- More than $5.3 billion of the $6.5 billion total was trade with Mexico.
- The vast majority of U.S. trade among NAFTA partners moves by land.
- As shippers seek to avoid the congestion and delays of overland truck movements waterborne trade between Mexico and Florida's Gulf ports is increasing.
Latin America:
- Florida is known as the Gateway to Latin America and that distinction brings opportunities for trade, increased and improvements in transportation as well as job creation.
- The state is a major transshipment and distribution base for goods moving between Latin America, the Caribbean and the rest of the world.
- South America's importance not just to the state's export market, but also to its import market, the model of two-way trade that supports economic growth.
- As evidence of the state's long-time position as a global hub, 12 of Florida's top 20 trade partners are located in Latin America and the Caribbean.
- Florida accounts for:
- 26% of total U.S. trade with Latin America and the Caribbean.
- 23% of total U.S. trade with South America.
- 34% of total trade with Central America.
- 34% with the Caribbean.
- 36% of all U.S. merchandise exports to Latin America and the Caribbean and 17% of all merchandise imports from the region.
- Florida is the second largest importer from Latin America and the Caribbean, following Texas, which imports considerable amounts of oil from Mexico and Venezuela.
- Trade with the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean surpassed $88 billion in 2011, growing 101% since 1998.
- With $18.5 billion in two-way trade, Brazil has remained the state's largest trade partner over the last 14 years, with trade growing by a total of 122%.
- Florida's trade with Colombia reached $9.1 billion in 2011, a growth of 130% since 1998. Colombia now stands as Florida's second-largest two-way trade partner.
- The passage of the U.S. - Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement last May is expected to support an additional $345 million in annual Florida-original exports to Colombia.
- Florida trade with the countries of the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) reached $22 billion in 2011, an increase of 25% since it was implemented by the U.S. in 2005.
- The other participating countries implemented the Agreement slowly over the years through 2009, so the full effects have still not yet been realized.
Panama:
- Panama is Florida's 21st largest two-way trade partner as of 2011 with $2.2 billion in trade and growth of 139% since 1998.
- Florida can expect to see exports to Panama increase by roughly $125 million per year due to the implementation of the U.S.-Panama Trade Promotion Agreement.
- Over the next two years we will be able to expand our existing relationships and forge new ones with the opening of the Panama Canal's larger locks.
- The opening will provide expanded commodity flows from Southeast Asia, offering new global opportunities through Florida's sea and air gateways.
Energy
- Over 20 Spanish-speaking countries, including all Central and South American countries, have ratified the Kyoto Protocol in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
- Together, Brazil and the United States lead the industrial world in global ethanol production, accounting together for 70% of the world's production and nearly 90% of ethanol used for fuel.
- The Argentinian nuclear program was first established with a research reator in 1957, which led to Latin America's first on-line commercial nuclear reactor in 1974. Argentina's nuclear technology is so advanced, it has led to the construction of nuclear facilities in Peru and Australia.
- In 2007, Commander Ronnie Nadar became Ecuador's first trained astronaut and established the Ecuadorian Civilian Space Agency, positioning the country as regional aerospace leader.
- At the 2008 Serve to Preserve Florida Summit on Global Climate Change in Miami, Governor Crist signed House Bill 7135, the most comprehensive energy and economic development legislation in Florida's history. Following the Team Florida Trade and Business Development Mission, the Spanish company Renovalia entered negotiations with Seminole Electric Cooperative, to build one of the most up-to-date solar power plants in the United States in Florida.
Television
Telemundo:
Telemundo, a U.S. Spanish-language television network is the essential entertainment, news, and sports source for Hispanics and a leading international player in the entertainment industry with presence in more than 100 countries worldwide. Broadcasting unique national and local programming for the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population, Telemundo reaches 93% of U.S. Hispanic viewers in 210 markets through its 16 owned-and-operated stations, 45 broadcast affiliates, and 800 cable affiliates. Telemundo is wholly owned by NBC Universal, one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies.
Univision
Univision is a Spanish-language television network in the United States and Puerto Rico. It has the largest Latin American audience, largely due to repurposed telenovelas and other Mexican programs produced by Grupo Televisa. Joe Uva is the CEO of Univision Communications, Inc.
Univision is headquartered now in New York City, after years of being in Los Angeles, and its major production facilities/operations are in Miami. It is available on cable in most of the country, with local stations in over 50 markets with sizeable Latino populations. Most of these stations air full local news and programming in addition to network shows. Univision's major programming is closed-captioned in Spanish, but unlike main competitor Telemundo, it almost never provides English subtitles.
Actors
Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez (born in Puerto Rico) is an Academy Award-, Golden Globe-, Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award- and British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award-winning Puerto Rican actor and film producer. He is known for his roles as Fred Fenster in The Usual Suspects, Javier Rodríguez Rodríguez in Traffic, Jack 'Jackie Boy' Rafferty in Sin City, Dr Gonzo in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and Franky Four Fingers in Snatch. Many have claimed that he is "one of the greatest Actors to grace the big screen".
Salma Hayek Jiménez (born September 2, 1966) is a Mexican actress, director, television and film producer. Hayek has appeared in more than thirty films and performed as an actress outside of Hollywood in Mexico and Spain. Hayek's charitable work includes increasing awareness on violence against women and discrimination against immigrants.
Hayek is the first Mexican national to be nominated for a Best Actress Oscar. She is also, after Fernanda Montenegro, the second of four Latinas to achieve a Best Actress Oscar nomination.
In July 2007, The Hollywood Reporter ranked Hayek fourth in their inaugural Latino Power 50, a list of the most powerful members of the Hollywood Latino community.
Designers
Oscar de la Renta (born Oscar Aristides Renta Fiallo) was born in the Dominican Republic At the age of 18, he moved to Spain, where he studied painting at the Academy of San Fernando in Madrid. He quickly changed his focus to fashion. While living in Spain, he became interested in the world of design and began sketching for leading Spanish fashion houses, which soon led to an apprenticeship with Spain's most renowned couturier, Cristóbal Balenciaga. Later, de la Renta left Spain to join Antonio Castillo as a couture assistant at Lanvin in Paris.
Carolina Herrera (born María Carolina Josefina Pacanins y Niño is a fashion designer and entrepreneur who founded her eponymous company in 1980.
Herrera was born in Caracas, Venezuela. Based in New York City since 1981, throughout the 1970s and 1980s she was named one of the best dressed women in the world. Her empire grew rapidly and steadily and she went on to dress Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis for the last 12 years of her life.
Herrera is married to Reinaldo Herrera Guevara, Marqués de Torre Casa, an editor at Vanity Fair magazine, with whom she had two daughters. She was previously married to Guillermo Behrens Tello, with whom she had two daughters as well.
Carolina Herrera is a Goodwill Ambassador and Facilitator for the Intergovernmental Institution for the use of Micro-algae Spirulina Against Malnutrition, IIMSAM, and its affirmative action programme, The Right to Food Campaign Initiative Against Malnutrition and Fashion United Against Malnutrition. IIMSAM works to promote the use of micro-algae Spirulina (Spirulina Platensis) to counter malnutrition and its severe negative impacts especially in the Developing and Least Developed Countries (LDC).
Ms. Herrera is a recipient of The International Center in New York's Award of Excellence.
Narciso Rodríguez is the eldest child and only son of Cuban immigrants Narciso Rodríguez II, a longshoreman, and Rawedia María Rodríguez. He grew up in Newark, New Jersey. His parents were against Narciso entering fashion: "They wanted me to be a doctor or a lawyer or a dentist. So when I dared to tell them, the shit hit the fan. It was crazy. But no matter how many times I heard 'No,' I just kept going. I never thought about 'no'. 'No' wasn't an option."
Rodríguez worked at Cerruti, Donna Karan and Calvin Klein before launching his own label in 1998. In 1996, he gained attention when he made the wedding dress his friend Carolyn Bessette wore when she married John F. Kennedy, Jr.
In 2005, he became the first American to win the Council of Fashion Designers of America Womenswear Designer of the Year Award two years in a row.
Hispanic scientists
Luis W. Alvarez (June 13, 1911, San Francisco, California - September 1, 1988) was an American physicist and inventor, who spent nearly all of his long professional career on the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1968. During World War II, Alvarez's work on military technology was of the highest importance. He was a key participant in the Manhattan Project, including Project Alberta, the actual dropping of the atom bomb. He was on board The Great Artiste, the observation plane for the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, as a scientific observer.
Alfredo Cuaron, MD, (1933-2002) a pioneer of nuclear medicine in Mexico and former director of the nuclear medicine program at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Cuaron was a dedicated teacher, a respected researcher and innovator, and an influential figure in a number of nuclear medicine organizations.
Franklin Ramón Chang-Díaz (born 5 April 1950) is a Costa Rican-American physicist and former NASA astronaut. He is a veteran of seven space shuttle missions, making him the record holder for most spaceflights by an astronaut (a record he shares with Jerry L. Ross). He is one of the first American citizens of Latin American descent to go into space.
Manuel Elkin Patarroyo (born November 3, 1946) is a Colombian pathologist who developed the world's first synthetic vaccine for malaria, a disease transmitted by mosquitos that affects millions of people in the Third World every year. The vaccine was evaluated in clinical trials carried out by the WHO in Gambia, Tanzania and Thailand, and had mixed results. However, the vaccine has been proven effective at around 30 percent of the times and could save an estimated 1 million lives out of an annual death toll of 3 million; which is the most effective vaccine against malaria to this day.
Mario Molina (born Mexico City,1943), along with Sherwood Rowland and Paul Crutzen, have all made pioneering contributions to explaining how ozone is formed and decomposes through chemical processes in the atmosphere. Most importantly, they have in this way showed how sensitive the ozone layer is to the influence of anthropogenic emissions of certain compounds. The thin ozone layer has proved to be an Achilles heel that may be seriously injured by apparently moderate changes in the composition of the atmosphere. By explaining the chemical mechanisms that affect the thickness of the ozone layer, the three researchers have contributed to our salvation from a global environmental problem that could have catastrophic consequences.
Ellen Lauri Ochoa (born May 10, 1958) is a former astronaut and current director of flight crew operations for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. After STS-120 she will take over as Deputy Director of the Johnson Space Center.
Ochoa is a co-inventor on three patents for an optical inspection system, an optical object recognition method, and a method for noise removal in images. As Chief of the Intelligent Systems Technology Branch at Ames, she supervised the 35 engineers scientists in the research and development of computational systems for aerospace missions. Ochoa has presented numerous papers at technical conferences and in scientific journals.
Ochoa became the first Hispanic woman in space when she served on a nine-day mission aboard the shuttle Discovery in 1993. The astronauts were studying the earth's ozone layer.
Ochoa was selected by NASA in January 1990 and became an astronaut in July 1991. Her technical assignments in the Astronaut Office includes serving as the crew representative for flight software, computer hardware and robotics, Assistant for Space Station to the Chief of the Astronaut Office, lead spacecraft communicator(CAPCOM) in Mission Control, and as acting as Deputy Chief of the Astronaut Office.
Written records about life in Florida began with the arrival of the Spanish explorer and adventurer Juan Ponce de León
in 1513. Sometime between April 2 and April 8, Ponce de León waded ashore on the northeast coast of Florida, possibly near present-day
St. Augustine. He called the area la Florida, in honor of Pascua florida ("feast of the flowers"), Spain's Eastertime celebration.
Construction of the Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine began on October 2, 1672, which was essentially
completed by 1695. The fortification was designed by Ignacio Daza, a Spanish engineer living in Cuba. Castillo de San Marcos is
made out of coquina stone (a sedimentary rock composed of seashells and coral) mined from nearby deposits. It is the oldest stone
fort in the United States.
Vicente Martinez Ybor opened his cigar factory just outside Tampa in 1886. The forty-acre tract where the factory was
located included housing and other amenities for its workers. Thousands of immigrant workers, many of them Cuban, Italian, and Spanish,
inhabited the town that came to be known as Ybor City. Cuban independence activist José Martí addressed some of
these workers at Ybor's factory, encouraging them to take part in the fight for an independent Cuba.