The U.S. Congress approved the CAFTA-DR in July 2005, and President Bush signed it into law on August 2, 2005. The CAFTA-DR has been approved by the legislatures in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Approval is pending in Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. The agreement shall enter into force on a date to be agreed upon among the parties. The export zone created will be the United States' second largest free trade zone in Latin America after Mexico.
Upon implementation, more than 80 percent of U.S. exports of consumer and industrial products to Central America will be duty-free immediately upon the Agreement's entry into force with the remaining tariffs eliminated within ten years.
The Agreement's potential benefits are far-reaching. In addition to tariff reduction, it expands market access across all sectors, provides new protections for U.S. investors in the region, and strengthens protections for U.S. patents, trademarks, and trade secrets. Provisions are also included that address worker rights, protection of the environment, trade capacity building and dispute settlement.
Once the Agreement has been ratified by each country's Congress, visit the Trade Information Center website's FTA pages for information on how to determine product-specific benefits, how to apply the rules of origin, and how to declare eligibility for lower duty rates.
Additional information including links to the text of the Agreement and information on how agricultural products are affected is available at http://www.export.gov/cafta.
For information on services for U.S. companies interested in entering the CAFTA-DR markets, visit http://www.buyusa.gov/centralamerica/en and http://www.buyusa.gov/caribbean/en
For more information on the agreement please consult the links below: