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Among those pushing Obama to engage further in trade with Latin America is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. It's blunt-speaking president, Tom Donohue, told business leaders in Colombia that the U.S. is focusing too much on the Asia-Pacific region at the expense of Latin America. He called for more countries from the Americas to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which includes Chile and Peru. "The TPP is mostly dancing to an Asian tune, I think the TPP could use a little salsa, cumbia, or even samba," he said, noting that Canada, Mexico and Costa Rica have expressed interest in joining. Obama, in answers to questions submitted by Latin American journalists before leaving for Cartagena, argued that the U.S. exports three times more to Latin America than to China and noted that 60 percent of Latin America's exports to the United States are manufactured goods whereas 87 percent of Latin America's exports to China were commodities. "We believe that economic partnerships can't just be about nations extracting another's resources," he said. Meanwhile, the U.S. is having an increasingly contentious relationship with Argentina, with U.S. companies complaining that it is throwing up sizable barriers to U.S. exports. The Obama administration has bristled at the behavior and some in Washington wonder whether Argentina will long keep its membership in the G-20 group of large and emerging world economies. Those issues could likely come up when Obama meets with Argentina's president, Cristina Fernandez, on Sunday on the sidelines of the summit.
[Associated
Press;
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