With four rounds of negotiations to go, the Cafta trade talks have reached a crucial stage. In the last round, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Guatemala went out on a wing to offer the US better access to its market -tariff-free access for 75% of US products- than the other Central American states.
Guatemala's unilateral proposal caused serious friction amongst representatives at the talks and uproar in the press, but this is the first time an influential business group has petitioned the regional governments to resolve their differences.
In the petition, Fecamco says that regional businesses have 'invested their hopes in this treaty which will open up access to their main trading partner under a permanent scheme with clear rules.' It expressed serious concern at the Guatemalan government's proposal, which 'breaks the spirit of consensus,' and urged the other governments to heal the rift quickly.
Actually, even Guatemalan business associations thought their government had gone out on a limb.
What seemed to encourage the Guatemalan government was the apparent abandonment by the US of the notion that it wanted a unified Central American proposal to deal with.
This and all, by the end of last week the Guatemalan government was issuing discreet signals that it might, after all, seek to 'harmonise' its stance with the rest of Central America.
Others who at one point had imagined it expedient to tag onto the Cafta talks, like the Dominican Republic and Panama, appear now content with the idea of negotiating separate deals --which in any case Washington seems to prefer.
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