| Overview | Agenda | Industry Area Summaries | Public Policy Area Workshop |
| Overview | Agenda | Industry Area Summaries | Public Policy Area Workshop |
2002 Trade & Investment Forum Caribbean
Latin American Action CompromisoCentroAmérica
In October 2002 CLAA co-hosted with the Nicaraguan Ministry of Industry, Development, and Commerce (MIFIC) in collaboration with the US Department of Commerce an investment forum that brought together more than three hundred key leaders from the region and the United States in an extraordinary spirit of collaboration to discuss meaningful ways to accelerate the process of development in Central America. CLAA has wholeheartedly embraced President George W. Bush’s "Third Border" initiative and has expanded it to encompass the entire Caribbean Basin. We believe that this conceptual framework recognizes the varied dimensions of the region’s relationship with the United States.. First and foremost, the "Third Border" succinctly reflects the geographic proximity of the Caribbean Basin and its importance to U.S. national security and strategic interests. Second, it provides a cohesive, common ground for addressing the specific challenges of being small economies in an increasingly global marketplace. And third, it helps distinguish the relative political and economic stability of the region from the more complicated circumstances facing the rest of the hemisphere. The purpose of the forum was to create a greater sense of urgency in meeting the challenges affecting the future of the Central American people, and increase awareness of the threats posed by poverty and global competition. Our premise is that the private sector’s initiative in forging a constructive public- and private-sector partnership is crucial in confronting these challenges head-on and utilizing all available resources to promote stability and attract the foreign investment needed for sustainable economic development. Without the private sector’s unwavering commitment, the economic, political, legal and social transformation that is needed to bring about fundamental change in our societies will be impossible. The forum’s objective was to obtain the participants unqualified commitment to do everything within their power to accelerate the process of development and use the means available to them to positively impact the region’s ability to successfully negotiate a Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and to aggressively drive the transformation process required to consistently attract foreign investment—that is, regional harmonization, business facilitation and transparent predictability. The Industry Area Workshop Summaries and the Public Policy Area Workshop Summaries highlight the very important lessons drawn from the discussions. An overlapping theme in these conclusions is that foreign investment, a necessary pre-requisite for economic development, will not come to the region unless we address the issues of small markets, difficult business practices and lack of predictability whenever disputes arise. Not surprisingly, the recurring recommendation found in these workshop summaries is the need for a uniform legal and regulatory framework across the region to insure that a well-defined set of values and rules is applied equally and impartially to all parties. This is the crucial first step in confronting the powerful twin threats of endemic poverty and global competition. CompromisoCentroAmérica is an ongoing initiative that seeks to deliver on our commitment to improve the economic well being of the people living in the region. The proposed US-Central America Free Trade Agreement provides a window of opportunity to take advantage of the benefits associated with greater trade liberalization and foreign investment. Globalization can be an enabling and powerfully liberating force if properly harnessed.
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