The Central American Integration System ( es, Sistema de la Integración Centroamericana, or SICA) has been the economic and political organization of
Central America
Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. C ...
n states since 1 February 1993. On 13 December 1991, the ODECA countries (Spanish: ''Organización de Estados Centroamericanos'') signed the Protocol of Tegucigalpa, extending earlier cooperation for regional
peace,
political freedom,
democracy and
economic development. SICA's General Secretariat is in El Salvador.
In 1991, SICA's institutional framework included
Guatemala,
El Salvador,
Honduras,
Nicaragua,
Costa Rica and
Panama.
Belize
Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...
joined in 1998 as a full member, while the
Dominican Republic became an associated state in 2004 and a full member in 2013.
Mexico,
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
and
Brazil became part of the organization as regional observers, and the
Republic of China,
Spain,
Germany,
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
and
Japan became extra-regional observers. SICA has a standing invitation to participate as observers in sessions of the
United Nations General Assembly, and maintains offices at
UN Headquarters
zh, 联合国总部大楼french: Siège des Nations uniesrussian: Штаб-квартира Организации Объединённых Наций es, Sede de las Naciones Unidas
, image = Midtown Manhattan Skyline 004.jpg
, im ...
.
Four countries (
Guatemala,
El Salvador,
Honduras, and
Nicaragua) experiencing political, cultural and migratory integration have formed a group,
the Central America Four or CA-4, which has introduced common internal borders and the same type of
passport. Belize, Costa Rica, Panama and the Dominican Republic subsequently joined the CA-4 for economic integration.
Headquarters
SICA was supported by the United Nations General Assembly in its resolution A/48L of 10 December 1993. The administrative centre
is located in
San Salvador, El Salvador
San Salvador (; ) is the capital and the largest city of El Salvador and its eponymous department. It is the country's political, cultural, educational and financial center. The Metropolitan Area of San Salvador, which comprises the capital it ...
. SICA is affiliated with the UN.
History
First Central American Court of Justice
Between 14 November and 20 December 1907, after a proposal by
Mexico and the United States, five Central American nations (
Costa Rica,
El Salvador,
Guatemala,
Honduras and
Nicaragua) took part in the Central American Peace Conference in Washington, D.C. sponsored by
United States Secretary of State Elihu Root. The five nations, all former
Spanish colonies, had previously tried to form a political alliance. Their first attempt was the
Federal Republic of Central America, and the most recent effort was the founding of the
Republic of Central America 11 years earlier.
The participants concluded the conference with an agreement creating the Central American Court of Justice ''(Corte de Justicia Centroamericana)''. The court would remain in effect for ten years from the final ratification, and communication would be through the government of Costa Rica. It was composed of five judges, one from each member state. The court heard ten cases, five of which were brought by private individuals (and declared inadmissible) and three begun by the court. The court operated until April 1918 from its headquarters in
Costa Rica; despite efforts beginning in March 1917 (when Nicaragua submitted a notice of termination of the agreement), it then dissolved.
Reasons for the agreement's failure include:
*No effective system of judicial procedure
*Judges were not independent of their respective governments.
*Jurisdiction was too broad to satisfy its member states.
Organization of Central American States
At the end of
World War II, interest in integrating the Central American governments began. On 14 October 1951 (33 years after the CACJ was dissolved) the governments of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua signed a treaty creating the Organization of Central American States ''(Organización de Estados Centroamericanos'', or ODECA) to promote regional cooperation and unity. The following year (12 December 1952), ODECA's charter was amended to create a new Central American Court of Justice (''Corte Centroamericana de Justicia'', or CCJ) without the time limit of its previous incarnation.
The Charter of San Salvador was ratified by all Central American governments, and on 18 August 1955 their foreign ministers attended its first meeting in
Antigua Guatemala
Antigua Guatemala (), commonly known as Antigua or La Antigua, is a city in the central highlands of Guatemala. The city was the capital of the Captaincy General of Guatemala from 1543 through 1773, with much of its Baroque-influenced architectu ...
. The Declaration of Antigua Guatemala authorized subordinate organizations of ODECA to facilitate economic cooperation, better sanitation and progress in the "integral union" of the Central American nations.
The Central American Common Market, the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (BCIE) and the Secretariat for Central American Economic Integration (
SIECA) were established by the five Central American nations on 13 December 1960 at a conference in
Managua. All nations ratified the membership treaties the following year.
Costa Rica joined the CACM in 1963, but Panama has not yet joined. The organization froze during the
1969 war between Honduras and El Salvador; in 1973 ODECA was suspended, and progress toward regional integration ground to a halt.
Revival
In 1991 the integration agenda advanced with the creation of the SICA, which provided a legal framework to resolve disputes between member states. SICA includes seven Central America nations and the
Dominican Republic, which is part of the
Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean S ...
. Central America has several supranational institutions, such as the Central American Parliament, the Central American Bank for Economic Integration and the Central American Common Market. The Central America trade bloc is governed by the General Treaty for Economical Integration (the Guatemala Protocol), which was signed on 29 October 1993. The CACM has removed
duties
A duty (from "due" meaning "that which is owing"; fro, deu, did, past participle of ''devoir''; la, debere, debitum, whence "debt") is a commitment or expectation to perform some action in general or if certain circumstances arise. A duty may ...
on most products throughout the member countries, and has unified external
tariff
A tariff is a tax imposed by the government of a country or by a supranational union on imports or exports of goods. Besides being a source of revenue for the government, import duties can also be a form of regulation of foreign trade and po ...
s and increased trade within its members. The bank has five non-regional members:
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
,
Colombia,
Mexico, the
Republic of China and
Spain.
All SICA members are also part of the
Mesoamerica Project, which includes Mexico and Colombia.
Haiti joined SICA in 2013 as an associate member, and the
Dominican Republic became a full member on 27 June 2013.
Members and observers
Regional observers
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Extra-regional observers
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Economic integration
Unified Central American currency
The Central American Bank for Economic Integration has not introduced its own common currency, and
dollarization is possible. However, for formal purposes the US Dollar is sometimes referred to as "Central American Peso" pegged 1:1 to the Dollar. There are no coins or notes in this currency and it is little known outside of legal circles. Central America is increasing its regional economic development, accelerating its social, political and economic integration. The region has diversified output and price and wage flexibility; however, there is a lack of business-cycle synchronization, dissimilar levels of public-sector debt, diverging inflation rates and low levels of intra-regional trade.
Policy integration
In the parliamentary body are proposals to consider regional air travel as domestic travel, to eliminate roaming fees on telephone calls and to create a regional penitentiary (affiliated with the Central American Court of Justice) to address regional trafficking and international crimes.
Institutions
Central American Parliament
Parlacen was born as a parliamentary body emulating the Federal Republic of Central America, with Costa Rica an observer. It evolved from the
Contadora Group, a project launched during the 1980s to deal with
civil war
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policie ...
s in
El Salvador,
Guatemala and
Nicaragua. Although the Contadora Group was dissolved in 1986, the concept of Central American integration is implicitly referenced in several countries' constitutions. The
Esquipulas Peace Agreement
The Esquipulas Nicaraguan Peace Agreement, also known as the Central American Peace Accords, was a peace initiative in the mid-1980s to settle the military conflicts that had plagued Central America for many years, and in some cases (notably Gua ...
(among other acts) agreed to the creation of a Central American Parliament composed of 20–22 directly-elected deputies from each country.
Costa Rica has not ratified the agreement, and is not represented in the Parlacen. Parlacen is seen by some (including former President of Honduras
Ricardo Maduro
Ricardo Rodolfo Maduro Joest (born 20 April 1946 in Panama) is a Honduran politician who served as President of Honduras from 2002 to 2006. A member of the National Party, Maduro was previously chairman of the Central Bank of Honduras. He grad ...
) as a
white elephant.
Central American Court of Justice
The CCJ's mission is to promote peace in the region and the unity of its member states. The Court has jurisdiction to hear cases:
*Between member states
*Between a member state and a non-member state accepting the court's jurisdiction
*Between states and a resident of a member state
*Concerning the integration process between SICA and member states (or persons)
The court may offer consultation to the region's supreme courts. In 2005, it ruled that Nicaraguan congressional reforms (which removed control of water, energy and telecommunications from President
Enrique Bolaños
Enrique José Bolaños Geyer (; 13 May 1928 – 14 June 2021) was a Nicaraguan politician who served as President of Nicaragua from 10 January 2002 to 10 January 2007.
From 1997 to 2002, Bolaños served as vice president under Arnoldo Alemá ...
) were "legally inapplicable". As of July 2005, the CCJ had made 70 resolutions since hearing its first case in 1994.
Organizations
*
Central American Bank for Economic Integration
The Central American Bank for Economic Integration - CABEI ( BCIE in Spanish) was founded in 1960. It is an international multilateral development financial institution. Its resources are invested in projects that foster development to reduce pov ...
(''Banco Centroamericano de Integración Económica'',
BCIE)
* Central American Common Market (CACM; ''Mercado Común Centroamericano'', MCCA)
* Central American Court of Justice (CCJ)
* Central American Armed Forces Conference (''Conferencia de las Fuerzas Armadas Centroamericanas'', CFAC)
*
Central American Parliament
The Central American Parliament ( es, Parlamento Centroamericano), also known as PARLACEN, is the political institution and parliamentary body of the Central American Integration System (SICA). Its headquarters are in Guatemala City.
History
...
(''Parlamento Centroamericano'', PARLACEN)
** Plenum
** Board of Parliament
** Secretariat
* President's Summit
** ''Comité Consultivo'' (CC-SICA)
** Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs
** Executive Committee (CE-SICA)
** Vice President's Summit
** Secretariat General (SG-SICA)
* Central American Educational and Cultural Cooperation (CECC)
[https://ceccsica.info]
See also
*
Latin American Integration Association
The Latin American Integration Association / Asociación Latinoamericana de Integración / Associação Latino-Americana de Integração (LAIA / ALADI) is an international and regional scope organization. It was created on 12 August 1980 by the ...
*
Central America-4 Border Control Agreement
The Central America-4 Free Mobility Agreement (CA-4; ) is a treaty signed in June 2006 between the Central American nations of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, establishing the free movement across borders between the four signator ...
*
Central America-4 passport
*
Mercosur
*
Rules of Origin
Rules of origin are the rules to attribute a country of origin to a product in order to determine its "economic nationality". The need to establish rules of origin stems from the fact that the implementation of trade policy measures, such as tari ...
*
Market access
In international trade, market access is a company's ability to enter a foreign market by selling its goods and services in another country. Market access is not the same as free trade, because market access is normally subject to conditions or re ...
*
Free-trade area
*
Tariffs
References
Bibliography
*
*Ishmael, Odeen (July 2007)
Guyana Journal (2007-07): Advancing Integration Between Caricom and Central America*Kimitch, Rebecca (15 July 2005). ''Commission Studies Impeachment'', Tico Times.
External links
Central American Integration SystemCentral American ParliamentCentral American Economic Integration SystemBCIE / CABEIDecisions of the CACJ in English (1908-1917)Market Access Map(A free tool developed by
International Trade Centre
The International Trade Centre (ITC) () is a multilateral agency which has a joint mandate with the
World Trade Organization (WTO) and the United Nations (UN) through the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
The head ...
, which identify customs tariffs, tariff rate quotas, trade remedies, regulatory requirements and preferential regimes applicable to products, including Central American Integration System)
Rules of Origin Facilitator(A free tool jointly developed by
International Trade Centre
The International Trade Centre (ITC) () is a multilateral agency which has a joint mandate with the
World Trade Organization (WTO) and the United Nations (UN) through the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
The head ...
,
World Trade Organization and
World Customs Organization
The World Customs Organization (WCO) is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. The WCO works on customs-related matters including the development of international conventions, instruments, and tools on topics suc ...
which enables traders to find specific criteria and general origin requirements applicable to their products, understand and comply with them in order to be eligible for preferential tariffs. The tool is very useful for traders who want to gain benefit from Central American Integration System)
{{Authority control
Continental unions
International organizations based in the Americas
Multilateral development banks
Foreign relations of Costa Rica
Foreign relations of El Salvador
Foreign relations of Guatemala
Foreign relations of Honduras
Foreign relations of Nicaragua
Foreign relations of the Dominican Republic
Supranational unions
Trade blocs
United Nations General Assembly observers
Politics of Central America
Central America-4 Border Control Agreement
Organizations established in 1991
Intergovernmental organizations established by treaty
Organizations based in El Salvador
1991 in economics
1991 establishments in North America
Customs unions