The United States of America continues to be the largest importer in the world, so this market has enormous potential for Portugal.
The United States of America (USA) is a federal constitutional republic composed of 50 states, a federal district (whose capital is Washington, D.C) and five major self-governing territories, mostly located in the central region of North America. The country is bathed by the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, so the geographic positioning is undoubtedly an added value to boost trade.
At 9.37 million km2 and with over 300 million people, is the world's fourth-largest country by total area and the third-most populous. In addition to the extremely diverse geography and climate systems, the USA is also one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, as result of strong immigration from many countries.
Portugal was one of the first nations in the world to establish diplomatic ties with the United States of America. Bilateral relationship between the two countries date from the earliest years of the United States when Portugal was among the first countries to recognize the USA following the revolutionary war, which ended in 1783. Contributing to the strong ties between the two countries are the presence of sizeable Portuguese communities in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, California, and Hawaii.
Since then, the United States has gradually become a superpower, exercising increasing political, economic, military and cultural influence on the world stage. A strong, vocal pro-American feeling across most of the political spectrum has combined to make the relationship between the United States and Portugal one of three pillars of Portugal’s foreign policy, along with the European Union and the Portuguese-speaking world.
Economic Relations between Portugal and USA
The United States is Portugal's biggest trading partner outside the European Union. Those ties have grown stronger over the last two centuries as our commercial relationship has expanded from trade in agricultural products and wine to advanced renewable energy solutions and biomedical innovations.
Portuguese exports to the USA were approximately € 2.5 billion in 2015, while U.S. direct investment in Portugal reached € 1.6 billion in the same period, and U.S. companies are significant investors in the insurance and pharmaceutical and chemical industries.
Portugal and the U.S. have enacted an income tax agreement to prevent double taxation, and to enforce tax compliance under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) in August 2015.
Another agreement that is being negotiated between the EU and the US is the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which is an international free trade agreement, aimed at preventing the interference of States in trade between acceding countries and that could help companies to accelerate internationalization.
In relative terms, the US territory is more than double the EU, so the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement has been subject to a number of adjustments, such is their importance. It is estimated that the TTIP should boost the EU economy by € 120 billion, the US economy by € 90 billion and the rest of the world by € 100 billion.
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Sofia Azevedo is the Commercial of Multicargo for the management of international relations, being a commercial department support in the contact with agents around the world and advising the COO in the management of all international contacts and events that Multicargo participates. She has a graduation in Business Management and a Master´s degree in Marketing, having started her professional career in the transport and logistics industry for more than 10 years.
