The Guatemalan Association of Exporters has made an urgent request that Congress finalise the rollover agreement without further delay. Failure to ratify the agreement before Brexit would result in Guatemala foregoing preferential trade terms with the UK, operating on WTO terms instead. According to the head of the Pea and Vegetable Committee of the Exporters Association, Tulio García, this would have implications for Guatemala’s agricultural sector – “the days are progressing and the opportunity to continue participating in equal conditions that its neighbouring countries (of Central America) with the United Kingdom are running out,” he said. He stressed that the agricultural sector is “the largest employer in the economic activities of the country”, because it absorbs “about 50% of the workforce” and, as he emphasized, is the activity that offers “perhaps for now”, “the best employment option in the most remote places of Guatemala”. The agreement has been ratified by the governments of Panama, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Costa Rica. Along with Guatemala, Honduras has yet to ratify the agreement (see Central America Briefing Vol 7 Issue 20).

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