On 5 November 2013, in Ottawa, Canada’s Minister of International Trade, Ed Fast, and Honduras’s Minister of Industry and Commerce, José Adonis Lavaire, signed the Free Trade Agreement between Canada and the Republic of Honduras. The English, French and Spanish texts are equally authentic. Separate labour and environmental cooperation agreements were signed the same day. It is not the failed multilateral deal between Canada and Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras (CA4) and not NAFTA.

Article 1.1 establishes a free trade area, consistent with Article XXIV of GATT 1994 and Article V of GATS. Article 1.2: opportunities for economic development; elimination of barriers to goods and services; investment; fair competition; a framework for cooperation; joint administration and dispute settlement. Article 1.3: WTO rights remain; in case of inconsistency this Agreement prevails except as otherwise provided; subsidies, dumping and countervailing measures remain exclusively under the WTO.

Article 3.4: no new or increased customs duty on an originating good, except as otherwise provided; progressive elimination under Annex 3.4.1; the lesser of the Annex rate and the GATT rate applies; acceleration may be discussed. Article 3.15 allows Honduras an agricultural safeguard duty if imports exceed the quantity in Annex 3.15. Chapter 4 defines origin, including regional value content, accumulation and de minimis. Chapter 10 covers investment and, in Section C, disputes between an investor and the other Party.

Article 21.1 establishes the Free Trade Commission, at cabinet level: it supervises implementation, may adopt interpretations binding on panels under Article 21.10 and on tribunals under Chapter 10, and may accelerate tariff cuts. Article 21.10: a dispute panel; each Party appoints one member, the chair is drawn by lot if not agreed. Article 21.17: implementation of the final report; Article 21.18: compensation or suspension of benefits.

Article 23.3: no unilateral reservations or unilateral interpretative declarations. Article 23.4: each Party notifies completion of internal procedures; the Agreement enters into force on the first day of the second month after the later notification. It entered into force on 1 October 2014. Article 23.5: termination takes effect 180 days after notice. Article 23.6: accession by another country on agreed terms. Article 23.1: annexes, appendices and footnotes form an integral part.

The Agreement is not CETA and does not replace the labour and environmental agreements signed the same day. Immediate access for Canadian beef and pork announced in Ottawa’s press release is a parallel sanitary measure, not a separate article of the free trade agreement.

Image: Parliament Hill, Ottawa, place of signature; Ken Lund, 29 September 2016; CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. Cropped to 16:9.

Source consulted: Canada–Honduras Free Trade Agreement. Treaty text: Free Trade Agreement between Canada and the Republic of Honduras, Ottawa, 5 November 2013.