Above: Havana

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Cuba has ratified the Sao Paulo Protocol, a preferential trade agreement that aims to improve trade between developing countries, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development announced.

The agreement, which first entered into force in 1989, is administered by UNCTAD. The agreement means signatories offer one another preferential tariff treatment in their trade in goods.

Signatories to the Sao Paulo Round have agreed to reduce their applied tariffs by 20 percent on at least 70 percent of products that incur duties.

Cuba submitted its instrument of ratification in January. Cuba is the third signatory to the Sao Paulo Protocol to ratify the Protocol, along with Malaysia and India.

MERCOSUR, South Korea, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Egypt, Morocco and Cuba have signed the agreement.

The agreement will not enter into force, however, until a fourth country signs ratifies it.