Despite the antiquity of the efforts for Central American integration and for the Customs Union the obstacles to trade between the countries on the isthmus presented by customs offices are notorious.
The Federation of Chambers and Associations of Exporters of Central America (Fecaxca) is once again calling for policies and common strategies for standards and customs procedures.
The agreement between the governments of Guatemala and Mexico establishes the granting of temporary work permits for Guatemalans in the states of Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche and Quintana Roo.
From a statement issued by the Government of Guatemala:
The Governments of Guatemala and Mexico have launched the Safe Passage program, which will provide Guatemalans and Belizeans with regional visitor cards and frontier worker cards at no cost, among other measures, in order to create a safe and orderly control of people crossing the Mexican border.
The strong dynamic of the global trade agenda forces Central America to consolidate its integration in order to participate in the changes that are shaping the global commercial order.
Editorial
The relaunching of the global trade agenda that the President of the United States is promoting in his second term, should be a warning for Central American countries, which despite reaching trade agreements with both the U.S. with the European Union, have sat on their laurels and have failed to complete the tasks needed to make the best use of these agreements, especially with regard to common customs and tariff policies.
In order to expedite intraregional trade it is necessary for customs offices dealing with cargo freight, to be open all hours, just as immigration customs offices are.
A study commissioned by the Federation of Chambers of Commerce of Central America (Fecamco) concluded that there are 87 barriers to trade in the region, one of the major ones being operations of the systems at customs offices at borders, followed by bureaucratic requirements and lack of adequate infrastructure.
To date the Trade Pillar Committee has not yet been formed with representatives of each of the Central American countries, despite the entry into force of the Association Agreement on January 1st 2014.
Central America has not managed to harmonize and standardize regional interests in order to make use of the Agreement with the European Union. Nearly six months after its entry into force, they have not institutionalized mechanisms to comply with even short term commitments related to regional trade, such as the harmonization of trade regulations, customs administration and trade policy. This failure has consequences.
The Tax Authority of Guatemala has denied the existence of a consensus among Central American countries to implement a unified charge.
The Superintendency of Tax Administration (SAT) of Guatemala denied that there is a consensus among countries to implement a one-time charge for reviewing scanned merchandise flowing through the region, as announced by the Directorate General of Customs of El Salvador.
El Salvador is proposing implementing a single charge for non intrusive inspection of goods at borders with Guatemala and Honduras.
The Directorate General of Customs (DGA) announced that Central American countries could implement a single charge for intrusive inspection of goods. Guatemala and Honduras have shown interest in this system proposed by El Salvador.
Trade ministers from the region are promoting the regional recognition of sanitary permits by its digitization and online availability.
Trade ministers from the region analyzed uploading permissions to a web platform in order to expedite the process of trading regionally. The initiative would allow an exporter registered in Guatemala not to have to send physical documents to another Central American country in order to register.
The competitiveness of the economies of the isthmus is being impaired by the inefficiency of the bureaucracy in the management of customs offices in the region.
The bureaucracy at customs offices has become a serious problem for the Central American region. Among other things it generates increases in the costs of exporting because of the procedures that must be paid for, loss of perishable goods and delays in production in processes that have to wait for raw materials.
A recent update of a Sieca regulation is causing confusion because of the inclusion of potassium bromate as a permitted additive.
This topic has been discussed by delegates from the Central American Ministries of Economy, Trade and Health, who have participated in review meetings of the Central American Regulations of the Member States of the Secretariat of Central American Economic Integration (SIEC).
Costa Rican customs offices do not have enough staff to handle the flow of cargo from Panama to the rest of Central America.
While on the Panamanian side there are about 25 people to process documents from carriers, on the Costa Rican side there are only 5 staff members to carry out these duties.
The situation occurs at a time when "the international freight activity going from Paso Canoas to Central America has increased by 50 % ...
FECAEXCA has submitted a regional strategy for the Association Agreement to be an effective tool of investment, business and employment generation.
From a press release issued by the Guatemalan Association of Exporters (Agexport):
Central American exporters meeting in the Federation of Chambers and Associations of exporters from Central America and the Dominican Republic, FECAEXCA, has delivered to its governmental and private initiative authorities a regional strategy for the Association Agreement to be an effective tool for investment, business and generating employment for regional countries.
The heavy bureaucracy present in Central American governments is obstructing the transport of goods, adding to regional trade costs.
In Guatemala, for example, the inefficiency in resolving issues and easily implementing procedures is self evident, as currently there are open files against 36,000 carriers, "something that no one can update, because of how cumbersome it would be to update this documentation , but the worst thing is that many of these records were wrongly documented because they correspond to breaches by vehicles which later went out of circulation ... " noted an editorial published by Prensalibre.com.
Today the official request was made to join, as an observer, the Central American Integration System, appointing Ivan Ramalho, to act in that instance.
Eleconomista.net reports: "The resolution was adopted by the bloc's foreign ministers, meeting in the Common Market Council (CMC), which prepared the statement later to be signed by the presidents."
After being accepted by the current members, another year is required for the country to become a full member of the Central American Integration System.
"There is a political will that the Dominican Republic be integrated as fast as possible" as a full member of the Central American Integration System (SICA), as it currently is an observer, said the Costa Rican Foreign Minister Enrique Castillo.