Guatemala has joined a free trade agreement(FTA) adopted between South Korea and five Central American countries. 

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said trade minister Ahn Duk-geun and Guatemala’s economy minister Luz Marina Pérez Contreras announced via a virtual meeting on Tuesday that the membership accession negotiations have reached a final agreement on Guatemala joining the Korea-Central America FTA. The ministry said the two ministers then signed a joint declaration to such an end. 

The move comes after the FTA between South Korea and Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Panama went into effect in March 2021. 

Under the deal, Guatemala will remove tariffs on nearly 96 percent of key South Korean export items, including cars, steel and textile while South Korea will free up a similar percentage of imports from Guatemala, including raw sugar and coffee. 

Guatemala is a major market in Central America, with its gross domestic products(GDP) accounting for some 32 percent of total GDP of the six Central American countries.