Guatemala : Indicators

In 2004, civil servants from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua completed negotiations with the United States on the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), and there is information available on this. Central America is currently negotiating an Agreement of Association with the European Union. There are some summaries of the trade treaties, but the agreements have not been translated into indigenous languages (although there are translations on some duties in indigenous languages). Local communities can obtain information on these agreements via a request to the Ministry of Foreign Relations (by telephone if they do not have internet access).

On the websites of Guatemala’s state agencies there is no information on the participation of communities and civil society in the specific process of regulating forest products covered in the CAFTA, and no specific information on this was found in the current negotiations for the Association Agreement between Central America and the European Union. Although there is economic information on levels of imports and exports of forest products (http://uim.mineco.gob.gt/documents/10438/17026/F14.pdf) as far as the free trade agreement (CAFTA) is concerned, there is little information on how civil society can have an impact on this process with regard to the treaties which have still to be ratified (such as the possible Agreement of Association with the European Union), or on how civil society has influenced this process in the treaties already ratified. However, as far as current negotiations on the possible ratification of the Association Agreement between Central America and the European Union are concerned, on the website of the European Union Delegation for Guatemala, there is a document on civil society participation in the current negotiations on the possible ratification of the Association Agreement (http://www.delgtm.ec.europa.eu/pubs/guia_2011.pdf and http://190.120.10.43/db/libcat/edocs/CUADERNO2-ACUERDOSDEASOCIACION.pdf)