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There are a few ways the trade agreement benefits the US business sector. First, it allows a level playing field for US companies to compete for business in Panama by removing tariffs. The $5 billion Canal expansion is a good example of a major project that US businesses can get in on. It also helps to protect existing US investments in Panama, which totaled $6.2 billion in 2007. It will ease tariffs and duties for US exporters to Panama (exports to Panama vastly outweigh imports from); major exports include oil and agricultural products. It will allow US companies to operate more easily within Panama, which has a huge services sector and a strong financial sector, and already many US companies are setting up shop there much more cheaply than they would at home.

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It`s just a matter of time before President Obama drives home Panama`s free trade agreement. It will, of course, immediately increase jobs and assure uninhibited economic activity between the two nations. The biggest card in the deck of this agreement, so to speak, is the expansion of the Panama Canal. Projected at $5.25 billion, the expansion project offers a wealth of contracts for qualified bidders; the US could easily supply Panama with skilled labor and technology. Undoubtedly, this would be one of President Obama`s more solid first-term accomplishments on the international stage.

In a labor agreement, the individual provides personal services under legal subordination to another individual or to a company. Such services include: being under the authority of the employer, and subject to sanctions when employee doesnt comply with assigned duties; meeting a daily schedule and performing services at a given location. On the contrary, regarding professional services agreements, such services are rendered independently with no submission to the direction and authority of the company. In a professional services agreement, labor law benefits do not apply nor those benefits of the Social Security system. The individual providing services within a labor relationship is better protected than the individual hired for professional services since, in the latter case, it all depends on terms established in the professional services agreement.