US to Visit Central America on Trade Mission

By Andrea Klosterman Harris|19 September 2008

In addition to meeting with high-level government officials, Shafer will visit US agricultural development assistance and export certification facilities. Traveling with the Secretary will be 17 US agribusinesses. They “will develop additional lines of commerce by meeting with nearly 70 Central American and Dominican Republic companies,” says Shafer. “The Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) is expanding trade, improving competitiveness, and accelerating economic growth everywhere it is in place throughout this region.”

Two-way trade of agricultural products between the US and CAFTA countries El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic is expected to meet or exceed $5 billion in 2008. Less than a year after CAFTA was in place, two-way trade grew 21% from $3.8 billion in 2006 to nearly $4.6 billion.

For more information, contact Darrell Upshaw of USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service at (202) 690-1786, or e-mail him at: [email protected]