Central American Nations Set for Official Launch of Free-Trade Negotiations with Bush Administration
WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 8, 2003--
El Salvador's
Minister of Economy Miguel Lacayo to lead delegation as talks begin Jan. 8 in
Washington, D.C.
Five Central American countries -- El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua -- will begin formal negotiations with the Bush administration to sign a regional free-trade agreement. The talks are slated to begin the morning of Wednesday, January 8, in Washington, D.C.
Ministers from the five Central American nations will gather with the chief U.S. trade representative, Robert Zoellick, in the first of 10 meetings scheduled for this year. The countries have already held a year of preliminary talks, the most recent of them in Costa Rica in December, to prepare them for the launch of trade negotiations.
A Central America-U.S. accord would reduce or eliminate tariff and non-tariff barriers by each party for the other's goods and services, thereby boosting trade, investment and economic growth for the countries involved. A signed deal is also expected to act as an impetus to talks on the Free Trade Area of the Americas, a hemispheric-wide pact also being negotiated by the Administration.
Representing El Salvador in Washington, D.C. will be Miguel Lacayo, the country's Minister of Economy, one of the officials spearheading negotiations on the part of Central America. In addition to talks with U.S. government representatives, the region's officials are also slated to meet with business leaders and other free trade proponents.
"We are eager to kick off these talks on a positive note and are confident the United States and Central America will conclude the negotiations of a comprehensive free-trade agreement by the end of the year," Lacayo said. "An agreement between the U.S. and Central America makes sense on many levels, but foremost because of our complementary economies. The region already has a free-trade agreement in place and is prepared to implement new commercial agreements."
The U.S. is the largest trading partner of El Salvador individually and Central America collectively. More than 50 percent of El Salvador's exports are purchased by the United States and about 60 percent of its imports are produced in the U.S. The U.S. exports more to Central America than to Russia, India and Indonesia combined, explained the Minister.
El Salvador has signed commercial agreements with Mexico, Chile, the Dominican Republic and Panama within the past two years. Moreover, the country is currently negotiating a free-trade pact with Canada.
The negotiations of a FTA also come at a time when El Salvador's Foreign Investment Agency -- PROESA - is implementing a campaign, "El Salvador Works," to promote the country abroad and attract foreign direct investment. El Salvador's Vice President Carlos Quintanilla Schmidt, who also heads PROESA, spent much of last year promoting the country's competitive advantages, investment opportunities and incentives to multinational corporations in the United States and elsewhere. El Salvador has attracted US $500 million in FDI in the past 24 months and is mainly targeting six sectors: agribusiness, call centers, electronics, manufacturing, textiles and apparel, and tourism infrastructure.
El Salvador is one of only three Latin American countries to hold the coveted "investment grade" rating by the credit ratings agency Moody's Investment Services. The Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal's annual rankings have placed El Salvador among the two most open economies in Latin America for the past three years, having among other advantages, the lowest interest rates in the region.
About PROESA 5 PROESA, short for Promoting Investment in El Salvador, was created in 2000 and combines public and private sector resources to promote foreign investment in the country. To learn more about the campaign, PROESA and/or investment opportunities in El Salvador, please visit http://www.elsalvadorworks.com or call 1-877-9-PROESA.
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