Benita Ferrero-Waldner, president of the Euro America Foundation, a nonprofit organization that promotes relations between Europe and America, is currently in Panama to announce the advantages of this Association Agreement.

In the case of manufactured goods and fisheries, tariffs will reach zero within a period of ten years, while 68% of the trade between Europe and Central America will be free of tariffs once the agreement comes into effect, expected to begin in late 2013.

The former European Commissioner of Foreign Affairs detailed that some 15 million euros (19.3 million dollars) will be saved on seafood exports, with agricultural producers saving another 200 million euros (250 million dollars), when the tariffs are liberated.

Ferrero-Waldner will participate tomorrow and Friday at the First Panama-European Union Forum, an event where key aspects of the economic, political, social, financial, educational, cultural and technological sectors of both economies will be analyzed.