Check out this great video from the U.S. Department of Commerce about how a major contract in Panama’s canal expansion saved a Chicago company hammered by the recession.

Some critics have disparaged the pending U.S.-Panama Free Trade Agreement, claiming the Panamanian market is too small to be worth the bother. But this story shows there’s real money on the table in Panama, where the canal expansion is said to be the largest public works project in the world since China’s Three Gorges Dam.

Nothing small about that!  And if the trade agreement makes U.S. products a less expensive option to provide inputs and equipment for the estimated $10 billion in infrastructure projects now underway in Panama, that sounds like a great deal all around.