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New Market Access for U.S. Consumer and Industrial
Products
· More than 80 percent of U.S.
exports of consumer and industrial products to Central America will be duty-free immediately upon entry into force of the
Agreement, and 85 percent will be duty free within five years. All remaining tariffs
will be eliminated within ten years.
· Key U.S. exports, such as
information technology products, agricultural and construction equipment, paper products, chemicals, and medical and scientific equipment will gain immediate duty-free access to Central America.
· Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua
will soon join the WTO’s Information Technology Agreement (ITA), which removes tariff and non-tariff barriers to IT products. Costa Rica and El Salvador are already
participants.
· Under the U.S. Caribbean Basin
Trade Partnership Act, many products from Central America already enter the United States duty-free. The CAFTA will consolidate those benefits and make them permanent, so that nearly all
consumer and industrial products made in Central America will enter the U.S. duty free
immediately on effectiveness of the agreement.
Central America is a large market for U.S. products. Current U.S. exports
are more than $9 billion per year. Patents & Trade Secrets: Stronger
Protections · Provides for the extension of
patent terms to compensate for delays in granting the original patent, consistent with U.S. practice. · Limits the grounds for revoking a
patent, thus protecting against arbitrary revocation. · Clarifies that test data and
trade secrets submitted to a government for the purpose of product approval will be protected against unfair commercial use
for a period of 5 years for pharmaceuticals and 10 years for agricultural chemicals.
Closes potential loopholes to these provisions. · Requires a system to prevent the
marketing of pharmaceutical products that infringe patents. · Provides protection for newly
developed plant varieties.
