EU and Central America Address IP, Trade and Environmental Challenges Under Association Agreement

By Bufete Mejia & Asociados

Central America and European Union (EU) authorities met in Brussels, Belgium, to discuss Intellectual Property Rights, Market Access, Technical Barriers to Trade, Sanitary and Phytosanitary Matters and Customs Matters on the EU-Central America Association Agreement.

High Representatives from both parties celebrated the full entry into force of the America Association Agreement and discussed some of its results. They specifically discussed the implementation of the EU Regulation on Deforestation-Free Products (EUDR), which entered into force on 29 June 2023, as Central American countries expressed their concern about the potential negative impacts on their agricultural exports covered by the EUDR, mostly on MSMEs, highlighting the socioeconomic significance that these sectors hold for the Central American region. They also underscored the urgency of publishing the official implementation guidelines to provide more clarity and certainty to the implementation efforts currently underway at both public and private level.

The Central American countries greeted the European Union for the development of regional forums and bilateral exchanges that have been held with each of the Central American countries on this topic and pointed to the need to continue the direct dialogue with EU experts regarding the EUDR implementation in the forthcoming months.

On June 2023, the Regulation on deforestation-free products entered into force. The main driver of these processes is the expansion of agricultural land that is linked to the production of commodities like cattle, wood, cocoa, soy, palm oil, coffee, rubber, and some of their derived products, such as leather, chocolate, tyres, or furniture. Under the Regulation, any operator or trader who places these commodities on the EU market, or exports from it, must be able to prove that the products do not originate from recently deforested land or have contributed to forest degradation. 

The trade pillar of the EU-Central America Association Agreement has been provisionally applied since 1 August 2013 with Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama, since 1 October 2013 with Costa Rica and El Salvador, and since 1 December 2013 with Guatemala. It reduces tariffs and increases the efficiency of customs procedures.

Regarding Intellectual Property, the Association Agreement provides for stronger intellectual property rights for import and/or export of products to Central America.

It reaffirms the parties’ commitments to the TRIPS agreement and the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) and accords them both national treatment and most favoured nation (MFN) treatment.