Central America European Union Association Agreement

The central objective of the EU`s trade policy for Central America is to increase bilateral trade and use it to strengthen the process of regional integration between the countries of the region. In practice, this means the creation of a customs union and economic integration in Central America. The EU has supported this process through its trade agreement and trade-related technical cooperation programmes. The European Union and Central America (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama) signed an Association Agreement at the meeting of the Presidents of the Central American Integration System in Tegucigalpa (Honduras) on 29 June 2012. The basic logic on this is clear. As soon as the US signed NAFTA, the EU followed and concluded its own bilateral trade agreement with Mexico. Now that the US has signed NAFTA, it is an EU agreement for the same countries (minus the Dominican Republic, which is part of the ACP group with which the EU is already negotiating an EPA under the Cotonou Agreement). In 1993, the European Union and Central America signed a framework cooperation agreement. This Agreement entered into force on 1 March 1999. At the EU-Latin America Summit in May 2002, the EU and six Central American countries – Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama – agreed to negotiate a new political dialogue and cooperation agreement signed in Rome on 15 December 2003. Social movements in Latin America have made their position clear: “The Association Agreement is nothing more than a continuation of free trade agreements. These texts have been a farce of democracy from the beginning. Like DR-CAFTA, NAFTA and NAFTA, these are all the tools used by big business to deepen and deepen poverty and exploitation of those who produce wealth through their labor.

Dr-CAFTA has been in force for two years and we are already seeing that our countries are flooded with imports, that consumer prices are rising and that there is a lack of customs revenues, which leads to a reduction in public spending. In addition, the United States has blocked Central American agricultural products for spurious phytosanitary reasons. Meanwhile, the inhumane expulsion of our compatriots continues. .

Jason Thane Jeffers

Jason Thane Jeffers

Jason Thane Jeffers - Metal sculptor and Web Developer.