Guatemala won't meet CAFTA February deadline
AP
Sunday, January 15, 2006

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) - Bureaucratic delays in the United States have made it impossible for Guatemala to meet its goal of entering into the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) by early February, officials said Tuesday.


The Economy Secretariat's announcement came a day after President Tony Saca of neighbouring El Salvador signed into law several legal reforms that will allow that country to meet its February 1 goal for entering into the agreement.

CAFTA-DR, as the agreement is known, was supposed to take effect on January 1, but Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic weren't ready to join the pact with the United States on that date.

El Salvador is likely to be the first nation to join CAFTA-DR and Guatemala has been scrambling to meet entry requirements by February 1.

But Deputy Economy Secretary Enrique Lacs said that because the Office of the US Trade Representative has yet to approve Guatemalan proposals submitted in November, Guatemala will be unable to meet the deadline.
Lacs said US trade representatives were overwhelmed with work.
"It's more realistic to think about March or April," said Lacs, who is also Guatemala's head of foreign trade.

Guatemala's legislature has also failed to pass many of the necessary reforms required for the agreement to go forward, further complicating matters, Lacs said.

Saca's signing of similar reforms Monday in El Salvador prompted anti-free trade protesters to take to the streets.
Most were vendors of pirated movies and music. They face a government crackdown under the free trade agreement.

Saca said the government would try to help the nation's estimated 60,000 vendors of pirated goods find "alternative work".
He argues the accord will remove barriers to trade between the US and El Salvador, allowing the country's growing textile and assembly-for-export industry to flourish.

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