Honduran exports to China as of last June totaled US$24.9 million.
By EFE
Businessmen from Honduras and China signed four contracts for the purchase of coffee and palm oil worth 11 million dollars in Tegucigalpa on Friday, as part of a business meeting organized to strengthen trade relations between the two countries.
The contracts were signed by businessmen at an event chaired by the Minister of Economic Development of Honduras, Fredis Cerrato, the general director of the Department of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce of China, Li Xinqiang, and the Chinese ambassador in Tegucigalpa, Yu Bo.
Cerrato told reporters that the contracts, which are worth around 11 million dollars, were signed in the framework of a business meeting between representatives of Chinese firms seeking to increase their business and trade with Honduran entrepreneurs.
He said that this trade exchange will boost the economy between the two countries, which in the coming weeks will hold the seventh round of negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Honduras and China in Tegucigalpa.
Honduran exports to China as of last June totaled 24.9 million dollars, an amount higher than the 4.2 million dollars sold in the same period in 2023, according to official figures.
The Chinese ambassador to Honduras told EFE that the business meeting will allow entrepreneurs from both countries to increase business opportunities.
He stressed that the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Honduras represents “not only distant opportunities, but also present and long-term opportunities.”
Regarding the four agreements signed, the Chinese diplomat said that businessmen from both countries will have “many benefits, many shared gains.”
“There are many opportunities for development, employment opportunities, and the improvement of living conditions in both countries,” the Chinese ambassador stressed.
Honduras and China announced on March 26, 2023 the establishment of diplomatic relations, hours after the Central American country officially broke off the relations it had maintained with Taiwan since 1941.
For his part, Xinqiang said in his speech that bilateral relations between Honduras and China “have started at a high level” and that trade exchanges between the two countries show “a positive trend.”
Honduras and China signed an Early Harvest Agreement last February, which will come into effect on September 1, to speed up the negotiation process for a free trade agreement, he said.
The Early Harvest Agreement is a common step prior to FTAs and usually includes the application of tariff exemptions for the export of certain products to the Asian giant.
In mid-July, Honduras sent the first two containers with 36 tons of shrimp to the Chinese market, duty-free.
China is the “world’s second largest economy and largest trading country” with a market of 1.4 billion people, Xinqiang stressed, while assuring that his country is willing to “expand imports of products from Honduras.”
