*Nicaragua’s minister of development, industry & trade (MIFIC), Jesús Bermúdez, has said that under a new free trade agreement (FTA) with China, which took effect on 1 January, Nicaragua has the capacity to quintuple exports to China within five years, from US$200m currently to US$1bn within that period. Speaking to state-owned TV channel TN8, Bermúdez said that China’s exports to Nicaragua are worth some US$1.3bn currently, an amount which he said could rise to US$2bn within ten years. The two countries established relations in late 2021 following Nicaragua’s severing of ties with Taiwan and signed the FTA in August 2023. China is currently Nicaragua’s third biggest export market after the US and Central America and its third biggest source of imports after the US and Central America.