ISDS Case Map
CAFTA
US - Central America Free Trade Agreement
Day and night, workers at the port of Quetzal on Guatemala's Pacific coast load fruit from surrounding plantations and clothing stitched in local factories onto freighters bound for Long Beach, Calif., a flow of goods that has swelled since a Central American trade agreement with the United States took force last year.
While the passage of the Central American Free Trade Area (CAFTA in English, TLC in Spanish) is a distant memory in the public political debate, implementation of the treaty continues to meet organized, spirited opposition in Costa Rica. In the US, activists are standing in solidarity with continued opposition and resistance.
The president of the Dominican Telecom Institute (Indotel) affirmed that the Free Trade Agreement with the United States and Central America (DR-CAFTA) will force the country to transform the free zones into high technology industrial parks to be able to compete in the world market.
On the morning of Tuesday, March 13, Railroad Development Corporation (RDC) filed its Notice of Intent to Submit Claims to international arbitration against the Republic of Guatemala under the Central America-Dominican Republic-United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).
On Feb. 26, tens of thousands of Costa Ricans took to the streets in a demonstration to block ratification of the free trade agreement and reject approval to implement legislation demanded by the United States. Costa Rica is the only country included in the Free Trade Agreement between the United States, Central America, and the Dominican Republic (CAFTA-DR) that has not yet ratified the agreement. A broad grassroots movement in the country is trying to make sure it stays that way.
March 1 marked the first anniversary of the implementation of the US-Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) in El Salvador. While Presidents Bush and Saca met in Washington DC and made statements about how beneficial CAFTA had been for "everyone," back in El Salvador the social movement, youth groups, economists, and the FMLN party all disputed those claims.
The results of the free trade agreement between El Salvador and the United States are disappointing because at the end of 2006, export operations only grew 3.5 percent, economist Evelio Jesus Ruano adjudged on Monday.
The Salvadorian Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN) seeks on Sunday an alliance to renegotiate the Free Trade Agreement with United States. Only a year of being implemented, that agreement damaged the agricultural sector, small and middle companies, disarticulate productivity even more and increased trade deficit for a rise in imports, compared to exports, they stated.
The Dominican Republic made its long-awaited entry into a trade accord with the United States and Central American nations, leaving Costa Rica as the only signatory country where the deal has not taken effect.
US exports to four Central American countries grew more than 18 percent last year, after the Bush administration began a free-trade agreement with those nations, while imports from those countries were unchanged.
