A trading coalition comprised of the United States and five other countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. These Central American countries import approximately $9 billion in products from the United States each year; the United States imports about $11 billion in goods from these five countries. Because of special-preference programs established within the coalition, nearly 75 percent of the products exported to the United States by the countries in the coalition arrive duty free (meaning taxes are not paid on them).