14 February 2025

The new US government is considering a renegotiation of the CAFTA trade treaty that would remove countries from it. This could include Honduras and Nicaragua or any country that refuses to accept deportees. The US considers that Nicaragua is actively dealing in the trafficking of migrants and the special envoy for Latin America, Mauricio Claver-Carone has said the US is not interested in Nicaragua as a commercial partner. DR-CAFTA has been in force since 2004. The US remains Nicaragua’s largest trading partner and being removed from the treaty would imperil hundreds of thousands of jobs. Experts estimate being left out of new negotiations would cost US$1.5 billion a year in trade to Nicaragua.

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