The House recalled that everything that happens to the United States affects El Salvador because of its commercial narrowness.
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of El Salvador (Camarasal) warned on Tuesday that the crisis in ports, which affected last week inUnited StatesIt can still hurt the Salvadoran trade flow.
Camarasal’s head of economic affairs, Karla Méndez, said that the strike has not ended and that it is paused, so the business sector must remain on alert.
This strike had an early pause on 3 October, but it is important to mention that it is a time when negotiations are to resume, it is important that the business sector be alert. Karla Méndez, Head of Economic Affairs of Camarasal
During YSKL’s radio interview, Méndez urged companies to continue in communication with their operators and to continue in the search for alternate routes because, he considered, it is something “fundamental,” to avoid possible repercussions.
The president of the Transport and Logistics Committee of Camarasal, Néstor Canizales, acknowledged that the paralysis of the ports last week caused affectations to Salvadoran entrepreneurs.
Canizalez estimated that daily the United States stopped producing and mobilizing about $5 billion, part of this goes to the Central American region and El Salvador.
There were approximately 75,000 containers that were not going to be operating, Canlizalez said.
The United States is the main trading partner for Salvadorans. The Central Reserve Bank (BCR) notes that of the $4.319.4 million that were sent during the first eight months of the year, 34 percent were destined for the US market.
At the supplier level, U.S. companies ranked first as the nation imported 28.8 percent of the $10,453.3 million purchased worldwide.
Canizalez said that entrepreneurs will be able to stay – from January 2025, when the dockers sign the ratification of the agreement with the logistics companies.
Problems
The chairman of the committee recalled that this is just one of the problems that entrepreneurs have faced in the logistical field in recent months.
The trade union estimates that 90 per cent of world trade moves through the maritime route and, in this one, as in the case of dockers, ends up impacting the sector.
Canizalez said the Port of Acajutla in Sonsonate is not the only one reporting stagnations in the region.
According to the Chamber, ports in Mexico reported suspension of receipt of merchandise because they did not have the capacity to receive more.
In addition, he recalled that problems such as the reduction in water levels in the Panama Canal, Panama, caused problems for ships to cross in the last year.
Then we had the problem of Red Sea and Houthis, which meant that the ships could not follow their normal route and deviate, it was 11 days behind, the chairman of the committee said.
Entrepreneurs were also exposed to increasing the merchandise that passes from Asia, from 35 days to a minimum of 60 days.
The Chamber sees positive investment of more than $1.6 billion that the Turkish group, Yilport, will do in the ports of Acajutla and La Unión. Entrepreneurs expect the first phase of the work, which covers the infrastructure, to be completed this year.
This article has been translated after first appearing in Diario El Mundo