American Foreign Trade Bulletin:
January to May 2013

Central America, October 17, 2013. The Secretariat of the Central American Economic Integration System (SIECA) through the Bureau of Statistics, Research and Policy, has presented the American Foreign Trade Bulletin for the months of January to May this year.
This Bulletin includes a presentation of the distribution of the FOB value of total exports of the region (CA6) which reached a total of U.S. $13.099 billion between January and May 2013, observing a negative variation of 3.0% compared to the value recorded in the previous year of U.S. $13.5096 million which was mainly due to the lower prices of the main export commodities such as coffee, sugar, palm oil, bananas and gold.
The categories of products which contributed the most to the total value of exports, classified by Chapter of the American Tariff System-SAC-represent 60.1% (U.S. $7.8687 billion) of total exports, were:
• Coffee, tea, maté and spices with U.S. $1.6111 billion (12.3%);
• Edible fruit and nuts, peel of citrus or melons with U.S. $1.3828 billion (10.6%);
• Machines and electronic equipment with US $1.2758 billion (9.7%);
• Sugars and sugar confectionery with U.S. $1.0817 billion (8.3%);
• Optical instruments and appliances, photographic, cinematographic, measuring, checking and precision equipment, medical and surgical instruments and apparatus, and parts and accessories thereof with $605.9 million (4.6%);
• Plastic and glassware with $429.1 million (3.3%);
• Clothing and accessories ready to wear and knit fabrics U.S. $427.9 million (3.3%);
• Pearls (natural) or cultured, precious or semi-precious stones, precious metals clad with precious metal (plated) and articles thereof with $410.7millones (3.1%);
• Animal fats and oils or vegetable products, vegetable or animal waxes with $360.0millones (2.7%) and,
• Beverages, spirits and vinegar with $283.8 million (2.2%).

More on this topic

Regional Exports Fall 5.5% in First Quarter

August 2013

The January-March 2013 Newsletter by SIECA on Central American Foreign Trade is the first to include data from Panama.

Central, August 15, 2013.

The Secretariat of Central American Economic Integration (SIECA) through the Bureau of Statistics, Research and Policy, has presented the first American Foreign Trade Bulletin which includes data from the Republic of Panama.

Central American Foreign Trade January-March 2013

July 2013

Exports totaled $7.676 billion in the first quarter of 2013, a decrease of 3.3% compared to exports in the same period last year.

From the executive summary of the report entitled "Central American Foreign Trade Bulletin January-March 2013" by SIECA:

Exports from the region reached an FOB value of U.S.

Central American Trade up to February 2013

June 2013

The region's exports were worth $4.940 billion FOB, seeing an increase of 0.9% compared to exports recorded in the previous year.

CENTRAL AMERICA'S EXTERNAL TRADE
Newsletter: January-February 2013

The region's exports had an FOB value of U.S. $4.9398 billion in February 2013, noting an increase of 0.9% compared to exports recorded in the previous year (U.S. $4.8942 billion).

Central American Foreign Trade in January 2013

May 2013

Exports from the region registered a FOB value of U.S. $2.478 billion, an increase of 5.7% compared to the $2.344 billion exported during the same month last year.

The categories of products that contributed to the performance of exports, classified by Chapter of the Central American Tariff System - SAC - which accounted for 59.9% (U.S. $1484.6 billion) of total exports, were: