Bolivia and El Salvador highlight trade pact offering mutual benefits

Bolivia and El Salvador are presenting their newly active trade agreement as a bridge between Central and South America, with tariff preferences covering hundreds of products from both countries.

Bolivian Foreign Minister Héctor Huanca, El Salvador's ambassador in La Paz, Ana Guadalupe Rivas, and representatives of Bolivian businesses and exporters gathered at Bolivia's Foreign Ministry to highlight the pact. Huanca said the partial-scope agreement, developed through a process that began several years ago, had been in force since July 30.

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a concrete tool to expand and diversify

El Salvador will provide benefits for 250 Bolivian products, including flowers, fresh or dried beans, fruit, yerba mate and Brazil nuts. Bolivia will extend preferences to 259 Salvadoran products, including food and beverages, clothing, medicines for human and veterinary use, plastics and manufactured plastic goods.

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a new stage in the development of economic and trade relations

The agreement establishes rules on origin, customs procedures, and sanitary and phytosanitary measures. It also introduces digital signatures for foreign-trade procedures and promotes alignment with international standards, which officials said should make export processes faster and more predictable.

Huanca called the pact “a concrete tool to expand and diversify” trade and said it created a “strategic opportunity” because of the countries' locations, with El Salvador in Central America and Bolivia in the heart of South America. Rivas said in a joint statement that the agreement marked “a new stage in the development of economic and trade relations” between the two countries.

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strategic opportunity