The economic-commercial relations between Italy and Panama are ancient, consolidated over time and develop today in the context of the common membership of the World Trade Organization, of which Panama is a member since September 1997, and under the “Association Agreement between the European Union and Central America (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama) signed in 2012.
As a country of services (over 65%), the economy of Panama tends to be open and favourable to the liberalization of foreign trade. The Government of Panama made customs tariffs among the lowest in all of Latin America.
The services mainly concern: the administration of the Canal (from which derive most of the country’s resources), banking and insurance, the management of the free zone of Colón and tourism.
Italian exports to Panama are mainly concentrated in the sectors of machinery, means of transport, pharmaceuticals, fashion/personal products and agri-food. In the Italian demand for Panamanian products, energy products (nuclear fuels), precious and non-ferrous base metals, and food products such as fish, crustaceans and molluscs are predominant.
Italy is at the 20th place as the destination market for Panamanian exports and is the 12th supplier of the country, third in the EU after Spain and Germany and ahead of France and the UK (data september 2024).
In Panama, since 2020, an CAMIP Business Association has been operating in the legal recognition phase by the Italian side that, Among its functions, it assists Italian companies interested in the Panamanian market and provides information and legal or administrative advice to its members.
For a detailed analysis of the trade between Italy and Panama you can consult the Country Card and the sites below:
http://www.infomercatiesteri.it/paese.php?id_paesi=50#slider-5