Impacts of Free Trade Agreements in Colombia's Emerging Economy It is known that free trade agreements can cause a country, such as Colombia , have economic growth, but they can also derive harmful benefits. In recent years, Colombia's economy has become known as an emerging market, part of the acronym CIVETS. It has become one of the most prosperous countries in Latin America with "transformative growth". (The Economy of Idea) Colombia has become the “headquarters of many multinational corporations,” with a “vigorous amount of foreign investment.” (Cheong, Plummer and Hamanaka) Much of Colombia's foreign direct investment and high level of exports come from its free trade agreements, FTAs. This article focuses on the US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement and how Colombia has benefited and been affected by it.I. IntroductionDuring the decades leading up to Colombia's economic crisis of the mid-to-late 1990s, the Colombian economy was historically stable. It was traditionally known for being a profit-driven company thanks to the agricultural sector, coffee beans being its main export. As new resources, such as tourism, textiles, copper, zinc, nickel, and gold, proved profitable, Colombia's GDP grew by an average of 5% annually between the 1970s and 1980s ( Colombia: Economy). However, in the late 1990s, it faced the first recession since the Great Depression (Economy of Colombia). Colombia's financial crisis is the result of the implementation of a "financial liberalization" program (Gomez, Kiefer3). Under this program banks and financial institutions increased their "intermediate assets" to "GDP ratio from 41% in 1990 to 47% in 1996" (Gomez, Kiefer3). .2007(US$ billion) 2011(US$ billion)Construction 0 2.10 4.31Mining 6.27 1.100 2.546Oil 2.78 3.333 5.083Source: Colombia Reports, Colombia FDI statisticsIncreased competitivenessAs a result of increase in FDI inflow, I also concluded that Colombia's economy has benefited from an increase in competitiveness. As mentioned above, FDI in Colombia has been heavily concentrated in the mining and oil sectors (refer to Table 1). Following the growth of exports in Colombia's mining sector (see Figure 6), Venezuela has been the leading exporter in coal production. Venezuela However, increased foreign direct investment in Colombia's mining sector has enabled an increase in the productivity of coal production. Figure 6: Colombian Coal Exports Source: Singapore Energy Week