As soon as the US signed NAFTA, the EU followed and concluded its own bilateral trade agreement with Mexico. Now that the US has signed NAFTA, it is an EU agreement for the same countries (minus the Dominican Republic, which is part of the ACP group with which the EU is already negotiating an EPA under the Cotonou Agreement). The central objective of the EU`s trade policy for Central America is to increase bilateral trade and use it to strengthen the process of regional integration between the countries of the region. . . .