Juan Carlos Pereira Of ProNicaragua

As a native of Nicaragua, Juan Carlos Pereira is excited about the opportunities the Central American Free Trade Agreement could bring to his country. As executive director of ProNicaragua, he is responsible for making those opportunities a reality. Essentially, CAFTA–which Congress could ratify this spring–would extend free trade with the US down through Central America, including Nicaragua, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic. And the possibilities are endless, primarily in the back-office support, tourism and retirement industries, according to Pereira.

GlobeSt.com: Why is CAFTA so important?

Pereira: We are creating a free-trade zone from the US through Mexico down all the way to Costa Rica. This is an important step toward the creation of free trade area of the Americas, at least that’s the way the countries that are pro-trade look at it. CAFTA is probably the most important free-trade agreement to come around since NAFTA because it includes six countries. From our perspective, this agreement does not include Mexico or Canada. From a US perspective it extends NAFTA down through Central America and the Dominican Republic.