The authorities of the Secretariat for Central American Economic Integration (SIECA) and Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador held this Friday (08.07.2022/XNUMX/XNUMX) a high level meeting all with Deepen the Deep Integration Process towards the free movement of people and goods.
During the meeting, "the guidelines for the work to be implemented in order to complete the incorporation of El Salvador to the process, with emphasis on establishing the functioning of the Integrated Border Posts", SIECA indicated.
This infrastructure brings together the participation of the Customs, Immigration, Health, Phytosanitary and Tax Authorities of both participating States in a coordinated manner.
According to SIECA, this renewed political push was aimed at once again ratifying the interest of the three Republics in moving decisively towards the consolidation of Deep Integration. He stated that this method contributes to “improving the conditions for countries to increase investment in intraregional and extraregional trade, as well as facilitating the transit of goods by reducing response times for operations at the borders.”
According to Francisco Lima Mena, Secretary General of SIECA, the agency under his charge is “fully prepared to provide the technical and administrative support required throughout this process for the well-being of the population of the three countries.”
The benefits of integration
The benefits of the integration and customs union process are evident. According to SIECA, the number of operations between Guatemala and Honduras were in the 2019 of 95,813, showing a growth of 5.8% in relation to the previous year. Meanwhile, in the year 2020 96,004 operations were carried out, an increase of 0.2%; in the year 2021 Commercial operations were 119,026, showing an increase of 24%; and in the first half of 2022 56,803 commercial operations have been carried out, showing an increase of 10.1%.
The value of operations between Guatemala and Honduras has also shown a substantial increase. In the year 2019 The value of trade operations between both countries was USD 1,011.5 million, showing an increase of 0.1% in relation to the year 2018; in the 2020 The value of the operations was USD 1,060.8 million, increased by 5%; in the 2021 rose to USD 1,446 million, an increase of 36% and in the first half of 2022 The value of the operations was USD 1,073.2 million, showing an increase of 21.2%.
Added to this is a trade facilitation and security measure. Guatemala and Honduras implemented, in 2021, the Sanitary and phytosanitary export certificates transmitted electronically, which totals 25,219 certificates.
Participants
Authorities from the following countries participated in the event: Guatemala, namely: Janio Rosales (Minister of Economy); María Luisa Flores (Vice Minister of Integration and Foreign Trade); Victor Hugo Guzmán (Vice Minister of Agricultural Health and Regulations); and Werner Ovalle (Customs Superintendent).
Representatives of the Honduras: Melvin Redondo (Undersecretary of Economic Integration and Foreign Trade); Fausto Cálix Márquez (Executive Director of the Customs Administration), Tamara Toro Rivera, (Technical Coordinator of the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation); and Allan Fernando Alvarenga, (Executive Director of the National Migration Institute).
Officials from the El Salvador: María Luisa Hayem (Minister of Economy); Adriana Mira, (Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs); Samadhy Martínez (Director General of Customs); Edwar Ventura (Advisor to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock); Ricardo Cucalón (Director General of Immigration and Foreign Affairs).
The meeting was attended by technical teams from the three countries in the areas of economy, customs, migration and agriculture.
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