Belize and Guatemala talk trade and border situation in successful engagement

Posted: Friday, August 30, 2024. 9:50 pm CST.

By Aaron Humes: For a very long time, Belize and Guatemala have had little to talk about. But as the deadline looms for the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to settle the border dispute between the neighbors, the leaders of both countries met on Monday to strengthen potential ties in the area of the economy.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Francis Fonseca reported to Cabinet on the recent official visit to the Republic, where Prime Minister John Briceño met with Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo on several priority areas, including trade and economic cooperation, security and border management issues, energy, tourism, labor and migration, the ICJ process and Taiwan.

On trade, a trade delegation for Belize met with their counterparts. The meeting involved discussions on the expansion of the Partial Scope Agreement, agriculture, and regional cooperation, as explained by the Prime Minister on Wednesday: “…what was agreed to is that we’re going to set subcommittees for example in the issue of trade that will be able to address the stumbling blocks that they’re not allowing for the limited PSA that we have signed on so that that can come on board.”

The Prime Minister noted that “…there were almost 20 Belizean investors looking either for A) markets in Guatemala or B) investors coming to Belize. We had a meeting at AG Export, it’s the largest organization in Guatemala that deals with the export of products so we had a meeting with them and then there was a lot of networking to see, whilst they can access our market, we can also access their market.”

On energy, the discussion focused on Belize becoming connected to the Central American electric grid, which would help to support Belize’s rapidly increasing energy demand.

On the dispute, talks involved working to ease tensions on the Sarstoon River, as well as Belize and Guatemala committing to abide by the ruling of the ICJ. According to Briceño: “With the issue of the border incursions and the Sarstoon, again, both the BDF and the Guatemalan Armed Forces to be able to meet, to work out how is it that we’ll be able to have better communications and coordination in this area.”

Discussions were also held on regional issues such as migration, immigration, and agriculture.

 

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