Canada – Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador (Formerly Canada – Central American Four)
Free Trade Agreement Negotiations
On August 12, 2011, Prime Minister Harper announced the conclusion of negotiations for a Canada-Honduras free trade agreement during an official visit to San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Canada remains open to re-engaging in free trade agreement negotiations with Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua at a future date.
Background
At the Canada-Central America Summit in Guatemala on September 28, 2000, Canada agreed to a request by the leaders of the Central American Four countries (The CA 4) of Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua to pursue free trade negotiations. Following extensive domestic consultations, formal negotiations were launched on November 21, 2001. Negotiations on parallel agreements on labour cooperation and the environment were launched at the same time.
After 10 rounds of negotiations, the talks reached an impasse in 2004, primarily over market access issues. Canada and the CA4 countries, however, continued to work to address the outstanding issues and lay the groundwork towards an eventual resumption of negotiations. To this end, Canadian and CA4 officials met three times in 2006, were in contact throughout 2007, and met again on three separate occasions in 2008. These discussions were useful and allowed officials to have a full exchange of views. Following the meetings in 2008, the Parties met in Ottawa from February 23 to 27, 2009, for the first full round of free trade agreement negotiations since 2004. Following further intersessional discussions via videoconferences, teleconferences and other exchanges, Canada and the CA4 met in Ottawa for the 12th round of negotiations from March 8 to 12, 2010.
Following the March 2010 round, Canada concluded that, among the CA4 countries, Honduras offered the best opportunity to conclude a free trade agreement in the short-term. As such, in October 2010, Canada and Honduras decided to concentrate on bilateral negotiations. To this end, Canadian and Honduran officials met three times for bilateral meetings: in Ottawa from December 6 to 9, 2010, in Tegucigalpa from February 14 to 18, 2011, and once again in Ottawa from July 18 to 25, 2011.
In January 2001, the Government launched public consultations seeking the views of all interested Canadians on the scope and priorities of these negotiations. These consultations are ongoing, as Canadians are encouraged to provide their comments and input on trade issues at any time via this website (see Canada Gazette Notice of January 6, 2011).
Contact Point
If you have questions or comments about this initiative we would like to hear from you. Please contact Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada at:
Trade Negotiations 1 Division (TPE)
Department of Foreign Affairs & International Trade
Lester B. Pearson Building
125 promenade Sussex Drive
Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0G2
Fax: 613-944-3489
E-mail : consultations@international.gc.ca
