Today Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao and Honduras’s Minister of Economic Development Fredis Cerrato jointly announced, via video link, the official launch of their negotiations on a free trade agreement. The decision to move on this front was made when Presidents Xi Jinping and Xiomara Castro met June 12 in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning noted today, reiterating that “China stands ready to work with Honduras to further tap the potential, create more highlights, and work for more outcomes in the mutually-beneficial cooperation, so as to create an even brighter future for the relations between the two countries.”
Honduran Foreign Minister Eduardo Reina had reported June 30 that a Chinese government delegation was expected in Honduras in the first half of July for those negotiations, accompanied by “a good number of businessmen.” The first 11 Honduran banana and nine shrimp companies have already been certified for export to China, and work is underway to clear exports of coffee, melons, tobacco, and meat products. The FTA would also open up exports of textiles, auto parts and other products generated by Honduras’s maquiladoras (assembly shops).,
That may seem like small stuff, but for Honduras, which receives 50% of its export revenue from trade with the United States, increasing access to the largest market in the world is much needed.
Honduras is also one of the four poorest countries in the Americas, and lacks the most basic infrastructure required to improve the lives of its people. More hospitals, schools, a functional network of secondary roads, and above all, electricity, are urgently needed. The state power company, ENEE, reported a daily deficit of 130 megawatts in the peak usage hours (6 to 10 p.m.) in June, with the resulting blackouts and rationing leading to protests and highway blockades.
Givanildo Sosa, an investment officer of the National Investment Council, told BNAmericas in a June 30 interview that the government has plans for US$ 1.6 billion in construction investment for 2023, in health ("basically the construction of hospitals,” starting work on five this year, he said), and upgrading the primary road network, telecommunications, electricity, seaports, and international airports. The big projects President Xiomara Castro raised in Beijing were Chinese financing of three hydroelectric dams and the construction of a north-south railway in Honduras, linking its Pacific and Caribbean coasts. China has built hydroelectric dams in Honduras before, and is already working on another one. According to Sosa, Chinese participation in the railway project is intended, but Honduras is waiting to see the details of the conditions China proposes for the project, before giving the go-ahead. Honduras has proposed for decades that such a railroad would function as a “dry canal,” transforming the country by making it a cross-isthmus connection between the Atlantic and the Pacific, second only to the Panama Canal.
