CENTRAL AMERICAN COMMON MARKET

(CACM), trade organization started in 1960 by a treaty between Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and later Costa Rica. By the mid-1960s the group had made advances toward economic integration, and by 1970 trade between member nations had risen more than tenfold over 1960 levels. During the same period, imports doubled and a common tariff was established for 98% of the trade with nonmember countries. In 1967, at the conference of American presidents at Punta del Este, Uruguay, it was decided that CACM, together with the Latin American Free Trade Association (see Latin American Integration Association), would be the basis for a comprehensive Latin American common market. However, by the early 1990s little progress toward a Latin American common market had been made, in part because of internal and internecine strife, in part because CACM economies were competitive, not complementary. Nonetheless, CACM has been judged more successful at lowering trade barriers than other Latin American groupings.

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