The United States of America (United States, or U.S.) and the Republic of El Salvador (El Salvador) have agreed to a Framework for an Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (Agreement) that further strengthens and builds upon our longstanding economic relationship, including the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR), which entered into force for the United States and El Salvador in 2006.
Key terms of the Agreement between the United States and El Salvador will include:
- El Salvador has committed to addressing a wide range of non-tariff barriers affecting trade in priority areas, including streamlining regulatory requirements and approvals for U.S. exports, such as pharmaceutical products and medical devices; removing import restrictions on remanufactured goods; accepting U.S. auto standards; streamlining certificate of free sale requirements, accepting electronic certificates; removing apostille requirements; and expediting product registration requirements for U.S. exports.
- El Salvador also has committed to address and prevent barriers to U.S. agricultural products in its market, including with regard to U.S. regulatory oversight and acceptance of currently agreed certificates issued by U.S. regulatory authorities.
- El Salvador has committed to move forward with certain international intellectual property treaties and provide transparency and fairness regarding geographical indications, while ensuring that market access for U.S. agricultural exporters will not be restricted due to the mere use of certain cheese and meat terms.
- El Salvador has recommitted to preventing barriers to services and digital trade with the United States and committed to refrain from imposing discriminatory digital services taxes. The United States and El Salvador will support a permanent multilateral moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions.
- El Salvador has committed to continue facilitating trade, as well as adopting and implementing good regulatory practices.
- El Salvador has reinforced its commitment to protect internationally recognized labor rights. El Salvador will prohibit the importation of goods produced by forced or compulsory labor.
- El Salvador has committed to adopt and maintain high levels of environmental protection and to effectively enforce its environmental laws. El Salvador has also committed to take measures to improve forest sector governance and combat illegal logging, strengthen enforcement of its fisheries-related measures, and combat illegal wildlife trade and illegal mining, and work toward accepting the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies.
- El Salvador has committed to address potential distortionary actions of state-owned enterprises and to address industrial subsidies that may have an impact on the bilateral trading relationship.
- The United States and El Salvador have committed to strengthen economic and national security cooperation to enhance supply chain resilience and innovation through complementary actions to address non-market policies of other countries, as well as addressing duty evasion and cooperating on government procurement, investment security, and export controls.
In the coming weeks, the United States and El Salvador will work to finalize the Agreement, prepare the Agreement for signature, and undertake domestic formalities in advance of the Agreement entering into force. Given El Salvador's commitment to take significant steps to advance a stronger and more reciprocal trade relationship, the United States will remove the reciprocal tariffs on El Salvador's exports to the United States for certain qualifying exports that cannot be grown, mined, or naturally produced in the United States in sufficient quantities, as well as certain products, such as textiles and apparel products, originating under the CAFTA-DR. In addition, the United States may positively consider the effect that the Agreement has on national security, including taking the Agreement into consideration when taking trade action under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, as amended (19 U.S.C. 1862). The United States and El Salvador look forward to closing the Agreement soon.
