The South Korea FTA: ratified, not yet in force
- Trade agreements and market access
- Agreements and preferences in force
- not audited
No: it is ratified, NOT in force. The Korea–Central America FTA was signed by the other Central American countries in February 2018 — Guatemala did not close market access in time — and entered into force for them between 2019 and 2021. Guatemala's accession protocol was signed on 8 January 2024 in Guatemala City; Congress approved it through Decree 18-2025 (110 votes, November 2025) and President Arevalo signed it into law on 3 December 2025. Nicaragua approved the protocol through Decree A.N. 8927 (La Gaceta No. 121, 3 July 2026); the protocol enters into force 30 days after the notifications are completed or on the date agreed between the Parties. As of August 2026 the accession is ratified by Guatemala (Decree 18-2025, 19 November 2025) and the FTA is NOT in force for Guatemala. Guatemalan exports to Korea in 2024: more than US$66.5 million (coffee, sugar, bananas), according to DataExport/AGEXPORT; the file already tracks `trade_exports_kr` / `trade_imports_kr`.
The research is written in English; quoted figures, source names and the titles of legal instruments stay in the language their source published them in.
Figures
- Signature of Guatemala's accession protocol
- 8 January 2024, Guatemala City
- Approval by Congress
- Decree 18-2025 (110 votes)
- Presidential enactment
- 3 December 2025
- Approval by Nicaragua
- Decree A.N. 8927, La Gaceta no. 121
- Guatemalan exports to Korea
- > US$66.5 M (coffee, sugar, bananas)
Caveat
Sources
Related records
- Guatemala's WTO membership and tariff binding coverage
- CAFTA-DR's entry into force and parties for Guatemala
- Guatemala's trade with CAFTA-DR partners 20 years on
- Timeline of the EU–Central America Association Agreement
- Entry into force of the Central America–Mexico FTA for Guatemala
- Tariff elimination and quotas under the Mexico FTA
This layer is research: read from public sources by the archive's own team, every claim cited with the date it was consulted, and audited where it is marked so. It has not entered the verified store — no figure here was fetched back from its source or stamped with a retrieval time — so it wears no red provenance numeral and never mixes with the verified figures.