Why Doesn’t the T-Shirt Exporter Pay, While the Coffee Exporter Does?
Guatemala set out to become an export economy in 1989, and for a time it succeeded. Thirty-seven years later, textiles and technology services receive tax benefits unavailable to other exporters such as coffee producers. This essay examines how sector-specific exemptions could be replaced by general rules that allow any company capable of investing, innovating and selling to the world to compete.