HONDURAN TRADE PRIORITIES: DOHA NEGOTIATIONS AND

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 TEGUCIGALPA 000778 SIPDIS STATE FOR WHA/CEN, WHA/EPSC, AND EB STATE PASS USTR FOR JWOLFE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ETRD ECON EAGR PGOV HO WTO SUBJECT: HONDURAN TRADE PRIORITIES: DOHA NEGOTIATIONS AND CENTRAL AMERICAN CUSTOMS UNION REF: A) Tegucigalpa 715 B) Tegucigalpa 704 C) State 6662 D) Guatemala 305 ¶1. SUMMARY: The GOH's two top trade priorities for 2004 are progress in the WTO negotiations of the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) and the creation of a Central American customs union. In the WTO negotiations, Honduras' main concerns focus on agricultural market access, rather than agricultural subsidies or the Singapore issues. In Central America, Honduras supports the completion of the regional customs union, but believes it will take several months to work out certain technical issues. END SUMMARY. -------------- --- Top Priorities for 2004: WTO and Central America -------------- --- ¶2. On March 17, EconOffs met with Melvin Redondo, Director of Trade Policy and Honduras' chief negotiator for trade agreements. In addition to discussion of Honduras' view of the ongoing FTAA negotiations (reftel A) and the upcoming UNCTAD XI session (reftel B),Redondo outlined Honduras' priorities in regional and global trade negotiations for the coming year. He stated that, as Honduras' top trade priority in 2003 had been CAFTA, its focus in 2004 would be the WTO negotiations and the Central American customs union. -------------- -------------- WTO Negotiations: Agricultural Market Access is Key -------------- -------------- ¶3. Redondo acknowledged that the GOH has not yet formally responded to Ambassador Zoellick's January letter (reftel C) regarding next steps in the Doha Development Agenda. He said that his office is still working on putting its views on the negotiations into a comprehensive response that can be discussed in detail. However, he was supportive of the letter and appreciative of Ambassador Zoellick's efforts to advance the Doha negotiations in 2004. ¶4. The GOH's primary concern with the DDA is with market access for agricultural goods, and the formulation of a list of products that will receive special treatment. Redondo pointed out that Honduras is unusual for a developing country, in having a maximum WTO tariff binding of only 50 percent, and a tariff binding of only 35 percent on most products. Redondo compared this to other countries with tariff peaks of 600 percent (he mentioned Kenya and India), and said that the Swiss Formula, designed with countries with higher tariffs in mind, would not be appropriate for Honduras. Applying the Swiss Formula to Honduras, according to Redondo, would lead to a schedule of tariff reductions that the Honduran private sector would find unacceptable, and that would seem unfair, given the already low level of Honduras' tariff bindings. ¶5. As in the CAFTA negotiations, Honduras hopes to be able to set aside a group of sensitive agricultural products for which tariff reductions will be negotiated differently. Redondo expects that a paper outlining the GOH position in greater detail will be ready for discussion by April. The GOH believes that, with only Sri Lanka in a similar situation, an accommodation for developing countries with low initial bindings should be possible. ¶6. Redondo stressed that agricultural subsidies or domestic supports are not a primary concern of his government, nor are the Singapore issues; the agricultural market access issue described above is far more important. Redondo said that Honduras is also working to build an offer on services that will lock in recent domestic liberalization of the telecom industry. -------------- -------------- Central American Customs Union: Honduras Supportive -------------- -------------- ¶7. The GOH's second major trade priority for 2004 is the establishment of a Central American customs union. As discussed in reftel D, this project has received high-level political attention from the new administration in Guatemala, which in January announced its intention to open its borders with El Salvador by late April, with Honduras and Nicaragua to follow later in the year. ¶8. Redondo emphasized that Honduras supports the goal of a regional customs union and is actively engaged in this project. Redondo stated that Honduras has acquired the image of the regional "bad boy" simply for being the one to point out some of the practical difficulties involved in the creation of a full customs union. He stressed that the issue is not the presence or absence of border controls, but the technical details involved in the management of the customs union - specifically, administration of certain tax issues - which imply a concern over trade distortions and diversions. ¶9. Redondo discussed at length some of the difficulties in managing the differing tax systems of the countries involved: for example, applying Honduran sales tax to goods which originate in El Salvador, or vice versa. (Note: while commonly called a sales tax, Honduras' tax is in fact a hybrid of a sales tax and a value-added tax (VAT). Tax is therefore levied not only at the point of sale, but also throughout the production and distribution process. End note.) Furthermore, Redondo stressed that, unlike Guatemala and El Salvador, Honduras exempts a sizable number of products -- mainly foodstuffs -- from the sales tax. True tax harmonization across the region would imply either persuading other countries to exempt the same basic basket of goods from sales tax, or applying the sales tax to those goods in Honduras. Neither is considered remotely feasible. ¶10. Setting aside the issue of tax harmonization, however, Redondo raised other examples of trading patterns which, under a customs union, would present "difficulties". For example, if El Salvador has a trade agreement with Chile but other members of the customs union do not, would Chilean goods for the entire region simply enter the region via El Salvador and then be shipped throughout the region tariff- and tax-free? Redondo also expressed concern over differences in sanitary and phyto-sanitary regulations among the various countries that would belong to the customs union, saying that Guatemala has declared itself to be free of certain poultry diseases, but implying that Honduran authorities have less than complete confidence in such declarations. ¶11. Redondo believes that, for Honduras, the technical questions can all be worked out so that Honduras could join by the end of the year. He outlined a two-stage process. In stage one, Honduras would open up to all goods which satisfy a Central American rule of origin, and to all goods for which the tariff for countries from the rest of the world is zero. In the second stage, Honduras would open up to goods originating from outside Central America, and those for which the different Central American countries have different tariffs. ¶12. In a separate meeting the following week, EconOffs also discussed the customs union with Marlene Urtecho, who is Assistant Director of Customs at the Honduran tax collection agency, the DEI (Direccion Ejecutiva de Ingresos). Urtecho downplayed the difficulty of managing different internal taxes, saying that each country could simply impose its own taxes on products passing through its own territory. Instead, she focused on the revenue losses to Honduras that would likely accrue because importers of the five products for which Honduras has higher taxes than its neighbors (petroleum products, wheat, sugar, alcoholic beverages and ethyl alcohol) would transship these imports through neighboring countries to avoid the tax. Honduras is not in a position to lower these taxes (particularly the fuel taxes),given the importance of meeting IMF fiscal targets. Like Redondo, however, Urtecho believes that these outstanding tax issues can be handled and expects that Honduras will belong to the customs union before the end of the year. Palmer