This is good news for Central American textile manufacturers. We will have to wait and see what other protectionist measures will be implemented by President Trump.
The possibility that the United States buys textiles from Vietnam at lower prices than those paid by textile manufacturers in Central America seems to have now disappeared, however, in order to measure the true impact of the Trump protectionist policy on trade between US business and the region we will have to wait to see what other decisions on international trade deals are take by the new administration.
The coffee union has stated that the advance payment of withholding tax reduces the trade margin of exporters by up to 40%.
The obligation to pay an advance withholding tax (IR) to the DGI is threatening the competitiveness of coffee growers, especially companies whose profit is on commission on sales that are placed on the international market. The complaint was made by Michael Healy, president of the Union of Agricultural Producers of Nicaragua to Trincheraonline.com.
Guatemala carriers have blocked passage through customs posts at Pedro de Alvarado, Jutiapa, in protest against the excessive slowness of procedures for entering El Salvador.
The slowness of customs formalities as a result of the computer system crash caused some 300 carriers to form a blockade using their trucks from Sunday February 28th on the route to the customs office in Ciudad Pedro de Alvarado, located in Moyuta, in the Guatemalan department of Jutiapa, on the border with El Salvador.
While authorities have reactivated the process for binational customs liberalization, entrepreneurs have pointed to constraints on issues related to bureaucracy, corruption, and infrastructure at border crossing points.
The governments of Guatemala and El Salvador have resumed work in Technical Groups to liberalize binational border posts. In a statement, they reported that dialogue has been revived over customs, sanitary and phytosanitary issues, migration, security, and legal and tax issues.
Ranchers are complaining that the increase of $0.20 per kilogram of cattle exported as leather is eroding their competitiveness.
The DGI published in La Gaceta on 4 February that "... In every act of exporting live cattle made by natural persons, it will be mandatory to submit to the Center for Exports (CETREX ) and the Directorate General of Customs Services the taxable receipt in original format which supports retention payments for its verification. "
Lala Group intends to take advantage of the free transit of goods in Central America to produce and export milk from Nicaragua to the entire region.
The Mexican company Lala confirmed the positive performance of Nicaragua's economy, announcing its intention to turn the country into a production hub and to export dairy products to the rest of Central America.
There is still no legal framework to manage the international cooperation funds that would finance the implementation of the customs union between the two countries.
Even though the Central American Economic Integration Secretariat (SIEC) announced "progress" in the process of the Customs Union between Guatemala and Honduras, Elperiodico.com.gt denounced the obstacles preventing it, "...
Money in the pocket for every grandstanding politician and every wannabe business consultant, logistics in Central America is a much talked about theme on which no action is actually taken.
EDITORIAL
Logistics is vital for sustainable economic development, and it is perhaps the area of business management that has made the greatest strides in the last 50 years.
For the private sector work stoppages at the ports of Limon in Costa Rica, have reaffirmed the urgent need for the country to build a port terminal in the Caribbean.
Costa Rican ports move the majority of cargo from international trade from Nicaragua, therefore abnormalities in the terminal operations affect the transit of Nicaraguan goods, because of the lack of a port on the Caribbean coast.
The main issue of concern is the slow pace of intraregional trade, which in particularly is hindered by customs offices in the isthmus.
The quarterly meeting of the executive directors and presidents of the Federation of Chambers and Industry Associations of Central America (Fecaica) showed the concern of the sector over measures such as the charging at offices in El Salvador of an $18 fee for the service of scanning the cargo passing through.
Of the 18 operating licenses for outlets requested by the Honduran pharmacy chain Kielsa, the government has only allowed three.
The Superior Council of Private Enterprise (Cosep) will exhaust all avenues of communication with the government to ensure the lifting of these obstacles placed on the Honduran company, whose estimated monthly losses due to not operating are $70,000 per month.
The World Trade Report 2013 focuses on trade as cause and effect of the change, and examines the factors shaping the future of global trade.
The world is changing extremely rapidly under the influence of many factors, among which are changing patterns in production and consumption, constant technological innovation, new forms of trade and obviously political policy.
The willingness to stop exports of red beans between mid-2010 and September 2011, resulted in Nicaragua earning bad reputation as a trading partner.
According to Enrique Zamora, president of the Association of Producers and Exporters of Nicaragua (APEN), in 2010, "the government was warned that what it was doing was wrong", mainly because of the cost invested in turning it (the beans) from a subsistence product in 1996 into a product which generated $80 million in exports.
Panama, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico continue to hinder the importation of beef from Nicaragua.
The President of Canicarne, Onel Perez, said that since January 2010, Nicaragua has not exported beef to Panama under the agreed quota within the Free Trade Agreement, reported Elnuevodiario.com.ni.
"In this country, the problem is that the meat is subject to unique public auction requiring the exporter to pay taxes of 21%, according to a specific list of cuts that are not suitable for export, there are more than 50 cuts, six items for each tariff, which hinders the operation, is expensive, and, contrary to what you may believe, tends to concentrate the use of the full amount of the quota in a single buyer and a single seller," said the Canicarne president.
Nicaragua's government is blaming beef and sausages exporters for the blocks on their products, for not having obtained the required export licenses.
"The Minister of Industry and Commerce, Orlando Solorzano, blamed Nicaraguan businesses for the obstacles they face at a regional level in exporting their meat and sausages. The official said the exporters have failed to meet various requirements in the process for getting export licenses", reported Laprensa.com.ni.