CAFTA talks with El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua were initiated in October 2002 and concluded in December 2003. Costa Rica, which was involved in the negotiations from the outset, agreed to join the pact in January.

CAFTA will eliminate tariffs and trade barriers and expand regional opportunities for the workers, manufacturers, consumers, farmers, ranchers and service providers of all the signatory countries. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, the agreement will immediately eliminate tariffs on more than 80 percent of U.S. exports of consumer and industrial products, phasing out the rest over 10 years. The Central American countries already have duty-free access to the U.S. for over 75 percent of their exports, and the agreement expands their opportunities and promotes the kind of domestic reforms that can help them grow and prosper and trade with the United States, Commerce reports.

The United States and Central America have a strong and growing trade partnership. U.S. exports to the CAFTA countries have grown over 70 percent since 1996, totaling $10.9 billion in 2003.

CAFTA is a key export market for important U.S. manufacturing sectors such as information technology products, agricultural and construction equipment, paper products, chemicals, and medical and scientific equipment, all of which will enjoy immediate duty-free access. More than half of current U.S. farm exports to Central America will become duty-free immediately, including high quality cuts of beef, cotton, wheat, soybeans, key fruits and vegetables, processed food products, and wine, among others.

ASTM International has been involved in the talks as part of a group of nongovernmental organizations, assisting with trade-capacity building. The group worked to address the signatory countries’ needs during the negotiations, and will continue to do so throughout implementation, and during transition to free trade. In its role in the non-negotiating group, ASTM has offered to provide 1) promotion of knowledge of voluntary standardization; 2) enhancement of developing nations’ ability to participate in open, transparent and balanced development of international voluntary consensus standards; and 3) the provision of technical training for the technical aspects and implementation of ASTM standards in industrial, commercial and scientific applications.

The directive, which may become law late this year or early in 2005, has a vast scope and targets all energy-using products available for sale in the EU. In principle this applies to any product — down to the component level — that uses energy. The directive is essentially a legal framework for the implementing measures that will identify products or features of products that will be required to prove their designs are environmentally efficient from cradle to grave.

According to Lyle, “The Commission has promised to involve stakeholders in the development process of implementing measures and it is expected that the EuP Directive will be in compliance with the rules of the World Trade Organization.  The Commission has also said the EuP Directive will take into account both existing legislation, such as minimum energy efficiency requirements, and proactive initiatives, such as voluntary agreements, from industry. … It has been confirmed with Commission officials that they would favorably consider voluntary agreements such as those currently covering standby energy losses of television and videocassette recorders and energy efficiency of domestic refrigerators and washing machines. By the use of these agreements, an industry sector can likely avoid being named in an implementing measure.”

For more information or assistance, contact Standards Attaché Gwen Lyle, Brussels, Belgium (phone: 32 2 508-2674; Gwen.Lyle@mail.doc.gov).