<p>Since the implementation of NAFTA in 1994 there has been an incentive to create free trade agreement with all the American countries. The next step to reach a free trade agreement like this has been the CAFTA, where also the Central American countries are involved in an agreement with the U.S. El Salvador is part of this agreement. The project has both been criticized and praised. Due to these different opinions the thesis wants to give answers to how CAFTA will affect different sectors in the economy in El Salvador and how the agreement will affect the people working in these sectors. The studied sectors are the agriculture, the assembly industry and the micro, small, and medium businesses in the informal sector. With the help of theories about free trade, specialization, factor mobility and growth, together with information about the experiences from Mexico and interviews from El Salvador, the answers are given to the problem. El Salvador will have comparative advantages in some products in the agriculture sector. The assembly industry will be able to compete if they can stand against the competition with China. The micro, small, and medium businesses are more orientated to the local market and will not be affected. In all sectors the lack of support from the government is a problem. The FDI is expected to increase but there will not be any technological transfer. Workers in the farm sector will move to the cities where they will find jobs in the assemblies or in the informal sector. Those who do not find jobs will emigrate to the U.S.</p>

Since the implementation of NAFTA in 1994 there has been an incentive to create free trade agreement with all the American countries. The next step to reach a free trade agreement like this has been the CAFTA, where also the Central American countries are involved in an agreement with the U.S. El Salvador is part of this agreement. The project has both been criticized and praised. Due to these different opinions the thesis wants to give answers to how CAFTA will affect different sectors in the economy in El Salvador and how the agreement will affect the people working in these sectors. The studied sectors are the agriculture, the assembly industry and the micro, small, and medium businesses in the informal sector. With the help of theories about free trade, specialization, factor mobility and growth, together with information about the experiences from Mexico and interviews from El Salvador, the answers are given to the problem. El Salvador will have comparative advantages in some products in the agriculture sector. The assembly industry will be able to compete if they can stand against the competition with China. The micro, small, and medium businesses are more orientated to the local market and will not be affected. In all sectors the lack of support from the government is a problem. The FDI is expected to increase but there will not be any technological transfer. Workers in the farm sector will move to the cities where they will find jobs in the assemblies or in the informal sector. Those who do not find jobs will emigrate to the U.S.

This thesis aims to analyse the effects of the Central America Free Trade Agreement on trade using the gravity model. The principal actors of interest are the United States of America and Central American countries combined with Dominican Republic as the other regional actor. Panel data was used with 153 countries for the period of 1995-2015. The model was specified using the dummy approach and estimated with OLS and PPML estimators to obtain results on effects of trade policy variables on exports. Estimates show mixed results but the general effect of CAFTA on exports is positive and significant. This trade creation effect makes CAFTA an important trade agreement for economic relations between member countries.

This dissertation explores technical regulations (sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures, technical barriers to trade, and geographical indications) in Central American agricultural and food trade. In the first part, a framework to systematically evaluate the broad issues for developing countries is presented. Evaluation of the issues for Central America is based on interviews with about 100 persons in the region and in the United States (US), and on secondary sources. The topic is of significance in Central America, especially when related to SPS measures. The World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreements have had relatively little direct impact in improving Central America's response to technical regulations, while homologous Central American regional institutions may have been more successful, with indirect support from the WTO and the US, in reducing the incidence of illegitimate regulations in intra-regional trade. Central America may implement illegitimate barriers more against others in the region than against the US. Although the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) may support Central America's capacity to meet more stringent technical regulations, the improvement may not be sufficiently perceptible. The potential for Central American greenhouse tomato exports to the US is analytically evaluated in the second part. These tomatoes may be admitted as the ban based on the risk of introduction of the Mediterranean fruit fly is partially lifted, due in part on discussions in the CAFTA negotiations. Mature green, vine-ripe and greenhouse tomatoes are heterogeneous in demand, and vine-ripe tomatoes are but greenhouse tomatoes are not heterogeneous by origin. A static partial equilibrium model is constructed for the US tomato market, where demand is based on multi-stage budgeting and supply is a function of own tomato price. When the Central American greenhouse excess supply function is introduced to the model, the region exports to the US, the aggregate greenhouse quantity increases, and its prices decrease. As greenhouse preference increases, greenhouse quantity and prices also increase. Changes are perceptible but small in the mature green and vine-ripe markets in the expected direction. Access by Central America is particularly beneficial when US consumer preferences shift further toward greenhouse over other tomatoes. / Ph. D.

In this study different variables proven to be correlated with labor rights to are used in a qualitative – descriptive study of the labor rights environment in the DR-CAFTA Latin American countries in order to determine if the current situation in Guatemala, subject of the first labor rights dispute under a free-trade agreement in United States history, is mirrored in each country, or is an environment unique to Guatemala. After a review of the variables this study concludes that Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua all have similarly low levels of all the correlated variables studied, but that Guatemala does in fact present as having a political and legal environment that is less conducive to labor rights.

During the debate over the ratification of the United States-Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), the Bush Administration argued that implementation of a free trade agreement would help strengthen the nascent democracies in Central America. As a bilateral agreement, CAFTA would not only foment greater trade liberalization by expanding market access and eliminating trade barriers, but also help transform the entire commercial frameworks in Central America and promote economic development. These implications are not just economic – in particular, its provisions on intellectual property and investment rights, government procurement and labor standards affect the political institutions underpinning democracy and rule of law. This thesis assesses the role in which CAFTA has affected democratic institutions in Central America. It employs a methodology known as the Democratic Audit to evaluate consequences to four dimensions of democracy - the electoral processes, open and accountable institutions, civil and political liberties, and civil society. It demonstrates the value of using the Democratic Audit to assess a trade agreement’s political effects with an application to Mexico after NAFTA. Then this work considers the case studies of El Salvador and Costa Rica, the most salient examples of democratic institutional change after CAFTA, by drawing on original research especially into the electoral politics and civil society development in these countries. Ultimately, the thesis argues that the most significant institutional effects of CAFTA have been its role as a political issue, rather than its content, in galvanizing popular opinion and reinvigorating electoral politics and civil society - ironically, not the consequences that the Administration originally had in mind. The research demonstrates that, even if some conclusions cannot be drawn due to the recency of CAFTA, the framework it has employed will be an invaluable tool for assessing future trade agreements.

中美洲具有關鍵地理位置，這裡有世界最大的進口量，然而，這特殊的地理位置同時具有好處和其挑戰。本論文旨在分析瓜地馬拉在特殊政治環境和經濟政策的背景之下，簽訂中美洲自由貿易協定之後，其對瓜地馬拉的影響。本論文也比較瓜地馬拉和其他中美洲國家出口至美國的情形，進一步了解出口的多樣化過程。本研究旨在評估在簽訂此區域自由貿易協定十年後所帶來的改變，並且分析中美洲自由貿易協定作為和美國市場交易途徑的保證，來保護瓜地馬拉當地的經濟安全。 / The Central American countries have a key geopolitical location; they are located in the same continent as the world’s largest importer. Having a privileged geographic position, has come with it challenges and benefits. This thesis intends to analyze the impact of the Dominican Republic –Central America Free Trade Agreement with the United States. Contemplating Guatemala’s particular political motivations and economic incentives to sign this regional Free Trade Agreement. This paper also intends to compare Guatemala’s exports performance to the United States with the rest of the Central America, to analyze the exports performance, in order to determine patters and visualize the export diversification process. This will be done to evaluate this regional Free Trade Agreement performance ten years after its signature. Followed by an analysis on the DR-CAFTA as a mechanism that promotes Guatemala’s economic security by guaranteeing the best access possible to the United States market

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:22:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2008-05-05Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:27:58Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 silva_tl_me_mar.pdf: 830478 bytes, checksum: 4fdd9cdadd6b786d834510133d6da006 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / O objetivo da dissertação é analisar a capacidade de eventos internacionais gerarem modificação em políticas públicas nos Estados Unidos. Para tanto, dois desafios internacionais a uma política tradicional dos Estados Unidos, a Farm Bill, foram analisados. Os casos são o contencioso do algodão entre Brasil e Estados Unidos na OMC e a ratificação pelo Congresso do CAFTA-DR. A análise foi conduzida à luz da literatura que trata das relações entre política doméstica e relações internacionais. Concluiu-se que os desafios internacionais tiveram sucesso parcial e que esse sucesso teve relação com o engajamento de atores domésticos norte-americanos, sobretudo do Executivo, em modificar a política agrícola em uma direção convergente com a pretendida pelos desafiadores. Os desafios, no entanto, não geraram estímulo suficiente para uma reforma estrutural abrangente da política agrícola até o momento. Palavras-chave: Estados Unidos; política agrícola; política comercial; algodão; CAFTADR Abstract This dissertation has the purpose to analyze the capacity of international events to cause changes in U.S. public policies. To do so, two challenges to a traditional U.S. policy, the Farm Bill, were analyzed. The cases are the cotton dispute between Brazil and the U.S. in the WTO, and the ratification of the CAFTA-DR by Congress. The analysis were conducted in the light of the literature about domestic politics and international relations. It is concluded that the international challenges had partial success and that that success was related to the engagement of U.S. domestic actors, mainly the Executive, in changing the agricultural policy to challengers´ intended direction. The challanges, however, didn’t produce enough incentive to a comprehensive structural reform of agricultural policy so far. / This dissertation has the purpose to analyze the capacity of international events to cause changes in U.S. public policies. To do so, two challenges to a traditional U.S. policy, the Farm Bill, were analyzed. The cases are the cotton dispute between Brazil and the U.S. in the WTO, and the ratification of the CAFTA-DR by Congress. The analysis were conducted in the light of the literature about domestic politics and international relations. It is concluded that the international challenges had partial success and that that success was related to the engagement of U.S. domestic actors, mainly the Executive, in changing the agricultural policy to challengers´ intended direction. The challanges, however, didn’t produce enough incentive to a comprehensive structural reform of agricultural policy so far.

Le Traité de Libre-échange avec l'Amérique Centrale et les États-Unis (CAFTA), approuvé à la suite d'un référendum populaire en octobre 2007, a été l'accélérateur d'un processus de libéralisation du secteur des télécommunications au Costa Rica, très similaire à celui vécu par la France. Le nouveau cadre juridique introduit une réforme du droit de la concurrence malheureusement applicable qu'au seul secteur des télécommunications. Le droit général repose encore sur les mêmes bases de la loi de 1994, qui comporte des lacunes critiquables. L'autorité de régulation des télécommunications sera responsable du contrôle de la concurrence dans le secteur, au détriment des compétences de l'autorité générale. De l'analyse comparée, il ressort un très grand parallélisme en dépit d'un retard notable dans le cas du Costa Rica. La présente étude met en évidence les atouts et les inconvénients des mécanismes de contrôle de la concurrence existant au Costa Rica, en faisant le point dans le secteur des télécommunications. Au vu de l'expérience française et communautaire, de nombreux efforts sont encore nécessaires pour aboutir à une législation qui est aujourd'hui encore loin d'être en pleine maturité. La forte présence d'entreprises multinationales sur le marché centroaméricain, et l'absence de mécanismes de contrôle quant aux stratégies anticoncurrentielles au niveau régional représentent un nouvel enjeu pour la mise en place d'un environnement concurrentiel. L’Accord d'Association entre l'Union Européenne et l'Amérique Centrale (AACUE) doit servir de base pour le développement d'un droit régional de la concurrence, selon le modèle communautaire. / The Central America Free Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA), approved after popular referendum in October 2007, has sped up the liberalisation process of the telecommunications sector in Costa Rica, very much like in France before. The new juridical framework introduces a competition right reform, unfortunately only applicable to the telecommunications sector. The general law is still based on the 1994 law, which has questionable drawbacks. The telecommunications regulation authority will be in charge of monitoring competition in the sector, at the expense of the competences of the general authority. According to a comparative analysis there is a striking parallelism despite a significant delay in the case of Costa Rica. This study highlights the pros and cons of the competition monitoring tools existing in Costa Rica, by taking stock in the telecommunications sector. ln the light of the French and community experience, numerous efforts are still needed to lead to a legislation that is still far today from being full y mature. The strong presence of multinational companies on the Central American market and the absence of monitoring tools regarding the anti-competitive strategies on the regional level constitute a new challenge for setting up a competitive environment. The Association Agreement between the European Union and Central America should serve as a basis for the development of a regional competition right, according to the community law.