South Florida is playing a pivotal role to help Haiti “build back better” from its devastating earthquake, because the area serves as the trade hub for the Caribbean nation and home to the largest Haitian community overseas, participants said at WorldCity’s Global Connections forum on Feb. 26. Businesses, nonprofits, universities and government agencies across South Florida all are mobilizing for Haiti, some working around the clock since the Jan. 12 quake that killed more than 212,000 people, left more than 1 million homeless and destroyed as much as 60 percent… Read More
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WorldCity President Ken Roberts
Central America taking a beating in 2009
The last year South Florida did not tally more than $50 billion in import-export trade through August was 2006. Through August 2009, the Miami Customs district topped $50 billion, but barely, and remained 15.51 percent off the $59.52 billion record total through August of 2008.
With data for more than two-thirds of the year in place, it is clear the biggest losers in 2009, those suffering the most at the hands of the global recession, are the Central American nations of Honduras, Costa Rica, Guatemala and El Salvador. All of them have seen their trade with Miami drop below levels of 2002.
Honduras, South Florida’s No. 7-ranked trade partner, has seen its trade fall 24.58 percent through the first eight months of the year, when compared to the same eight months of 2008, and 6.28 percent when compared to the same time period in 2002. During the same 7-year period, Miami’s overall trade with the world increased 54.64 percent.
No. 8 Costa Rica’s trade is off 23.70 percent compared with 2008 and 4 percent from the 2002 level; Guatemala, No. 13, is off 14.91 percent from 2008 and 6.15 percent from 2002; and El Salvador, No. 16, has fallen 11.67 percent from 2008 and 17.65 percent from 2002. Those four countries alone have given back more than half a billion dollars in import-export trade from 2002, at the same Miami’s trade has increased $17.77 billion.
With Honduras and Costa Rica, the damage is greatest on the export side, shipments from South Florida’s airports and seaports. The primary exports to the two countries are quite different, however. Exports to Honduras tend to center around the apparel industry — cotton, fabric, yarn, for example — while Costa Rica’s are largely either technology-related — copmputer chips, computer parts, cell phones — or construction-related.
Guatemala, on the other hand, has seen a decrease in its imports into Miami. Like Honduras, Guatemala’s imports are led by the apparel industry, products like suits, sweaters, T-shirts, and fruits and vegetables. El Salvador’s losses are fairly evenly spread between exports and imports.
The impact on Honduras can be viewed another way, as well. For the previous two years, in data through August, Miami ran trade surpluses with Honduras, as the poor Central American nation’s buying power increased. Through August of 2009, what had grown to a $165.12 million surplus the year before is now a $122.68 milion deficit.
Miami has a $1.03 billion surplus with Costa Rica through the first eight months of 2008; by 2009, that had nearly evaporated, falling to $89.16 million and nearly erasing at least seven consecutive years of surpluses.
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