European Union and Central America Trade Relations

Course summary European Union and Central America Trade Relations:

The European Union and Central America have concluded the negotiations for an Association Agreement in May 2010 during the EU-LAC Summit. After its legal review, the text was initialed in Brussels on 22 March 2011.

The Association Agreement between the EU and Central America (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama) marks an important step forward in the relationship between the two regions. The Association Agreement consists of three pillars: political dialogue, cooperation and trade.

The EU’s central economic policy objective for Central America is to strengthen the process of regional integration between the region's countries. In practical terms this means the creation of a customs union and economic integration in Central America (Central American integration system SICA) and the EU has fostered this process through its trade-related technical assistance in the region.

For the last decade the EU's share in Central American trade has remained largely stable at around 10% (8.5% in 2009). Historically the bulk of most Central America countries trade is with the United States and Latin America, and it is only recently that the region has actively sought to increase its trade with Europe.

EU imports from Central America are dominated by office and telecommunication equipment (53.9%) and agricultural products (34.8% in 2010). The most important exports from the EU to Central America are machinery and transport equipment (48.2%) and chemicals (12.3%).

Example of the course European Union and Central America Trade Relations: