The Joe Biden administration stated that it is studying the possible suspension of Nicaragua from the Free Trade Agreement between the United States, Central America and the Dominican Republic (DR-CAFTA).
The possibility of suspending Nicaragua from CAFTA “has been a subject of very broad deliberation and concern” by the government of President Joseph Biden, said Katherine C. Tai, United States Trade Representative of the Executive Office of the Presidency (USTR), during a hearing in the Senate Finance Committee.
“I think you’re absolutely right (Sen. Bob Menendez), when regimes change, we have to reconsider how we treat them across the board and it’s also been a question for us about how to respond accordingly,” Tai replied, to a query from Democratic Senator Bob Menendez.
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Menendez, a member of the Finance Committee and president of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Upper House, stated that he hopes to work “to suspend Nicaragua’s commercial access to CAFTA, since it is something absolutely scandalous” that the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo continues to be part of the trade agreement.
Menéndez asks to suspend Nicaragua from CAFTA
“I cannot think of any other dictatorship, specifically one that commits crimes against humanity, to which we voluntarily provide tax-free benefits,” Menéndez told Ambassador Tai, during the President’s Trade Agenda 2023 hearing, held on March 23. .
The Democratic senator also indicated that “one of the great privileges that we give to any country is preferential access to the US market, there is a long list of governments that want a free trade agreement with the United States,” referring to Ecuador, which lost access to the free trade agreement due to differences with former president Rafael Correa.
“This president is aligned with us (Guillermo Lasso), but when the countries of that region reached a trade agreement, the Ecuadorians were excluded due to their own actions,” he said.
We offer this benefit to a limited number of countries that are willing to meet our standards and share our commitment to democratic values. For this simple reason, I think we cannot ignore one of our free trade partners, specifically Nicaragua, turning into a brutal dictatorship,” he added.
In addition, Senator Bob Menendez reminded the United States trade representative that a group of experts from the United Nations Organization concluded that the Ortega Murillo regime is responsible “for crimes against humanity” in Nicaragua.
“I don’t take those similarities very lightly, I think when they are used, one really has to think about when you are using them, but these striking characterizations underscore the urgency of ending a business-as-usual approach with Nicaragua. Do you believe, ambassador, that the Ortega regime deserves preferential access to the United States market?” Menendez asked.
On the other hand, both Senator Bob Menendez and Republican Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar expressed yesterday, March 23, in separate hearings, their concern about Nicaragua’s permanence in the Free Trade Agreement, due to the democratic clause that has been broken. in the Central American country.
Both congressmen are promoters of the Law to Strengthen Compliance with Conditions for Electoral Reform in Nicaragua (Renacer) that calls for reviewing the participation of the Ortega regime in the trade agreement.
The United States is Nicaragua’s main trading partner, in 2022 it represented 46.5% of international merchandise sales (USD1,804 million), not including the free zone industry.
