While free trade discussions swirl in Augusta and Washington, Maine quietly recorded its biggest export gain to date.

In March, the Maine International Trade Center reported $2.6 billion in exports – a 13.7 percent increase over 2005.

The boost was credited to sharp increases in semiconductor and wood pulp shipments to Asia. The previous export record was set in 2004 at $2.43 billion.

Janine Bisaillon-Cary, the president of MITC, is optimistic for more. A trade mission to Japan and Korea is planned for this fall – two markets that have increased their Maine imports by 47 percent and 29 percent, respectively, since 2005. On April 1, President Bush signed a free trade agreement with Korea, which is now Maine’s fifth-largest export market.

If approved, the FTA with Korea is expected to increase U.S. exports by $19 billion and increase U.S. income by $20 billion per year, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission. How much of that might come to Maine is anyone’s guess.

For instance, Maine’s seafood sector could be helped.

“Some duty rates are up to 20 percent,” Bisaillon-Cary said. “There’s a significant difference when you reduce that.”

The MITC is analyzing duty rates for exports and the potential effects from new free trade agreements, she said.

And which Maine products would fare best in Asian markets. So far, the biggest items Maine exports to Japan are aviation parts, seafood, wood and pulp. In Korea, it’s wood pulp, paper and paperboard, and lobsters.

Bisaillon-Cary is contemplative about the role of the citizens trade policy commission, on which the MITC has a representative. She sees the MITC and commission sharing many concerns, but she worries that expanding the process of international trade agreements will slow what is already a complicated and laborious process.

“We could get caught up in a quagmire,” she said.

That would be bad for Maine.

“We’re a small state with a small population,” Bisaillon-Cary said. “We see that if we want growth, we need to go out to national and international markets. Economic development and business development understands that.”

– Carol Coultas