Forbes: “Why does everyone suddenly want a free trade deal with Georgia?

Forbes has published an article discussing trade agreements with the ‘small, Black Sea nation of Georgia’.

The idea is that free trade deals with smaller nations don’t really hurt the American blue-collar labour force as they are not going to be ideal places to reallocate corporate resources, such as building new factories. Georgia’s been supportive in Afghanistan, a war Trump finally wants to wind down after more than 18 years there. How about giving them something in return? That’s part of the sales pitch”, read the article.

The Forbes article quoted former Congressman from Florida, James Bacchus, the ex-Chairman of World Trade Organisation's Tribunal who in November wrote in favour of a free trade agreement with Georgia in the Financial Times.

An FTA with them would reassure other countries in the region that…the U.S. continues to offer an alternative to acquiescence to the authoritarian regimes that surround and threaten them,” he wrote, an obvious nod to the Russians. Georgia shares a border with Russia. President Trump prefers one-on-one trade deals rather than to follow World Trade Organisation norms for tariff rates among member nations. As such, “until we can revive the multilateral negotiating process, we should be negotiating bilateral trade agreements with some of the economically emerging countries that are our friends as well as with our major trading partners,” Bacchus said in an interview. 

“Georgia should be on this list”, wrote Forbes.

Forbes wrote that Georgia imported $340 million worth of goods from the US in 2015, rising to $768 million in 2019. US imports from Georgia were just $152 million last year, down from $181.1 million in 2015.

The US has free trade agreements with 11 smaller countries.

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