CAFTA is here, and with it great opportunities for those who seize the moment. In summary: What is CAFTA (Central America Free Trade Agreement)? On August 2, 2005, President Bush signed legislation to implement the Dominican Republic
- Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA). This followed the
vote the previous week by the House of Representatives to approve the
DR-CAFTA legislation. The Senate had passed the bill on June 30. The
Congresses of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala had previously approved DR-CAFTA.  Expanding Economic Opportunities for U.S. Manufacturers, Workers, and Farmers Trade between the United States and the CAFTA-DR countries is significant for all the Parties. In 2004, such trade totaled over $33 billion. The United States exported almost $16 billion in goods to the five Central American countries and the Dominican Republic in 2004, more than all exports to Russia, India, and Indonesia combined. A free trade agreement with Central America and the Dominican Republic would effectively create the second-largest U.S. export market in Latin America ($16 billion), behind only Mexico, and the 10th largest U.S. export market in the world. The market access and trade disciplines provided by CAFTA-DR offer an opportunity to expand U.S. exports to a region that is already seeing high export growth rates. U.S. export growth to the CAFTA-DR region has outperformed overall U.S.
exports. From 2000 to 2004, export shipments to CAFTA-DR destinations
grew by almost 16 percent, compared with less than 5 percent for
overall U.S. exports.
The market access and trade disciplines provided by CAFTA-DR would offer great opportunity to expand U.S. exports to the region. Central America is a natural trading partner of the United States; U.S. firms already enjoy close to a 50 percent share of the Central America
import market. Geographic proximity and close cultural and familiar
ties strengthen the economic relationship. The region, with a
population of about 34 million, is only a 2 - 2 ½ hour flight from
either Miami or Houston. Remittances from families in the United States are an important and rapidly growing source of foreign exchange throughout the region and help to fund continued imports of U.S. goods and services. Most U.S. firms that do business with Central America
already operate on a regional basis. CAFTA-DR would bring about
additional opportunities to harmonize the Central American market and
allow U.S. businesses to better serve the regional, integrated market.
On our Education & Links
page you will find a full section dedicated to information and valuable
links about CAFTA and all its details. Please feel free to browse ay
any time. There is really an entire body of great information available. However if you landed on this page, you are probably well versed on CAFTA and the great opportunities it offers U.S. and Canadian small and medium businesses with exportable products and services. AEGIS Costa Rica
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