see also: Peru FTA signing delayed; U.S., Ecuador take break in Negotiations
The U.S. continues to press Guatemala on a number of issues in its implementation of the Central American Free Trade Agreements, and the areas the U.S. has flagged as problems range from intellectual property rights to the implementation of agricultural tariff-rate quotas for chicken and rice, according to informed sources.
U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman said the U.S. wants to ensure that Guatemala fully complies with all of its commitments under the CAFTA, both in legislation and through regulations.
"I'm hopeful that within the next couple of months, we'll be done with Guatemala [implementation]," Portman said. He said the Guatemalan trade minister was in Washington this week to resolve outstanding issues on implementing the CAFTA.
Guatemala lagged behind El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua in implementing CAFTA (Inside U.S. Trade, March 31, p. 1).
On intellectual property rights, the U.S. is pressing Guatemala for an expansive application of data exclusivity by insisting that there should be no time limit on when a brand name drug producer can register for marketing approval and thereby protect its data.
Separately, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-CA) this week said the problem that has arisen from the piecemeal implementation of the CAFTA for apparel could be fixed in legislation. "I don't see any of those [issues] as obstacles that we can't overcome," but he said he did not know what vehicle could be used to move this legislation.
Specifically certain apparel does not get duty-free treatment if it is made in a CAFTA country that has implemented the deal from components of a signatory country that has not yet implemented.