The United States-Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) eliminates barriers to trade and investment among the seven signatories: Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the United States. The agreement opens new commercial opportunities for U.S. companies and U.S. operations of foreign companies with these Central American and Caribbean countries. CAFTA also enhances those countries’ access to the U.S. markets and establishes common regulatory and environmental standards.

 

CAFTA, which covers virtually every type of trade and commercial exchange between these countries and the United States, eliminated all tariffs on 80 percent of U.S. manufactured goods, with the balance to be phased out over a few years. A significantly large portion of the economic benefits of CAFTA are accruing from the liberalization of trade in services and the opening up of government procurement. The scale and scope of this agreement makes CAFTA a significant advance toward hemispheric free trade.

 

Florida plays a particularly prominent role in this process because of the state’s many economic, social, cultural and business ties to the region. Because of this, Florida offers any company currently doing business in the CAFTA region, or anticipating doing so, a unique set of advantages and resources.

 

The pages of this website and their various outside links will describe many of them, and also provide you with answers to any questions you may have about CAFTA or Florida.



The Florida Advantage

Florida knows the CAFTA countries:

  • One third of the CAFTA countries’ total merchandise trade with the rest of the world, and about 42% of their trade with the United States, passes through Florida – more than $18.6 billion a year.
  • A tenth of the CAFTA countries’ total worldwide imports, and a fifth of all goods they import from the United States (close to $4.8 billion a year), are made in Florida.
  • Florida is the main investment gateway to the CAFTA countries: about 300 multinational firms have their Latin American & Caribbean regional HQs in Florida. In all, more than 2,000 companies based outside the U.S. operate in Florida.
  • Almost 40 companies from the CAFTA countries have operations in Florida, while about two dozen Florida companies have facilities in the CAFTA countries.
  • Florida’s airports offer more direct flights to CAFTA destinations than all other U.S. cities combined. Along with Florida’s 14 deepwater seaports and 20 Foreign Trade Zones, they offer unparalleled connections to the CAFTA markets.
  • Florida has one of the largest Spanish-speaking populations in the U.S., numbering almost 4 million. A seventh of them are of Central American or Dominican origin, with extensive family and business ties to the CAFTA countries. 

Learn more about how your business can benefit from a Florida connection to the CAFTA countries.