Honduras, Nicaragua Join U.S. Trade Pact [View All]

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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/01/ap/business/mainD8GNGIU85.shtml
Honduras, Nicaragua Join U.S. Trade Pact

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, Apr. 1, 2006

(AP) Honduras and neighboring Nicaragua on Saturday joined a regional free trade
agreement with the United States that has provoked protests throughout Central America.

At a ceremony to inaugurate the Central American Free Trade Agreement, Honduran President
Manuel Zelaya said his country is embarking on a "different and extremely important path
for the strengthening of democracy."

The treaty, he added, is
"a way for us to broaden our growth possibilities and reduce our poverty."

Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolanos _ at an agricultural plant outside his country's
capital Managua _ certified his country's first export under the treaty,
a $20,000 shipment of beans.

A spokesman for Bolanos said Nicaragua hopes to increase its exports by 20 percent
and create more jobs.

Last month, El Salvador became the first Central American country to join the pact.

Costa Rica, Guatemala, and the Caribbean island of the Dominican Republic remain left
to join after implementing U.S.-demanded reforms, such as increasing intellectual
property rights.

Thousands of farmers, street vendors, university students and others have marched
in cities across Central America to protest the trade agreement.

Doris Gutierrez, a leftist Honduran lawmaker, said the pact violates the constitution,
omitting "all possibilities that small and medium-size producers can compete."

She added that while U.S. products already dominate Honduras' import market,
the United States "buys few products from Honduras ... and that's going to hurt us."

In the United States, the deal to eliminate tariff and non-tariff trade barriers
cleared Congress last year.