The Center is participating (as both regional adviser under the direction of Center president and executive director Dr. Boris Kozolchyk, as well as a member of a team of experts) in a commercial law assessment project (funded by USAID) for the CAFTA region, as well as participating in targeted law reform initiatives flowing out of this assessment activity to build trade capacity in the region. This project is assessing the legal and institutional environment in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua – in terms of underlying support to build trade capacity and attract investment to the respective countries and to the region.

The key subject areas of the assessment are as follows: bankruptcy; collateral (secured transactions); companies; competition; contracts; courts; real property; intellectual property; foreign direct investment; international trade; sanitary and phytosanitary measures and technical barriers to trade; customs administration and enforcement of the flow of goods and services; cross-border financial flows; cross-border flows of people; and supporting trade infrastructure.

With the participation and support of the governments, the international and regional donor communities and the private sector, this project has begun to move from the initial assessment phase into an implementation phase – to focus on actual legal and institutional reforms to be undertaken. Initial implementation work has begun in the area of secured transactions reform in the region.