Thanks for the question.
The negotiations were launched back in 2001 with the Central American four; that is, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, as a group. We made good progress for the first few years of those negotiations. Shortly after we began negotiating, that group of countries also began negotiating a free trade agreement with the United States. They got a little distracted, and they were unable to carry on two major negotiations at the same time. They concluded their agreement with the United States, and that was implemented in 2006.
We made an effort again to begin negotiations. We tried off and on for a few years. About 2008 we started again in earnest with the Central American four. Once again they got a little distracted in their negotiations with the European Union. Back around 2009 we had conducted a couple more rounds with the four countries. Then there was the coup in Honduras, and the Canadian government stopped contact with the Honduran government during that period. When we re-engaged after a legitimate election in Honduras, it became very apparent that we would be unable to conclude a single free trade agreement with all four of the CA-4 countries.
Frankly, the other three parties were simply not ambitious enough. They were not willing to offer Canada the same kind of market access package they had agreed to with the United States and the European Union. The Hondurans, on the other hand, were more ambitious in their negotiating posture. For that reason the Canadian government moved on and concluded a bilateral agreement with Honduras.