Guatemala expects to be part of one of the region's major economies

By Mayora IP

After the official incorporation of El Salvador on August 20, 2018, the Guatemalan government assured that the Customs Union between both countries and Honduras "will strengthen and consolidate the Northern Triangle as a center of economic growth that could jointly become one of the major economies of Latin America".

With the official incorporation of El Salvador, the customs territory now consists of 242,020 square kilometers, equivalent to 48.5% of Central America. Acisclo Valladares Urruela, head of the Ministry of Economy of Guatemala, informed that the three countries will have 80 percent of their merchandise with free circulation. "We have a great level of trade exchange, and the faster we mobilize the more our economies will grow," Valladares Urruela stated on a press release. The minister stressed that the new online single required border document (the Central American Invoice and Declaration) is expected to cut trading time between borders from 10 hours to 15 minutes.

The Northern Triangle of Central America refers to the three Central American countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, especially in regard to their economic integration. In February 2015, as part of the Plan for the Alliance for Prosperity of the Northern Triangle countries, the presidents of Guatemala and Honduras signed a general framework agreement to establish a customs union between the two countries. In January 2016, the Guatemalan Congress approved the protocol to enable a customs union with Honduras, which will allow for the free movement of people and goods between the two countries.  Guatemala’s protocol to enable the customs union with Honduras went into force in May 2016.  After completing regulatory, technical, and administrative procedures, the two countries implemented the first stage of the customs union process in June 2017.