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Quick Links:
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Costa Rica Eyes US Trade Pact
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INS Considers Opening Market
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LACSA Will Have Sky Marshalls
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Seven Chinese, Taiwanese Die
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US to unveil new immigration policy
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DNA mad cow from Canada
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Schwarzenegger urges voters
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Costa Rica Eyes US Trade Pact This Month
Costa Rica
expects to finish negotiations this month on the
free trade agreement with the United States after
balking at the terms of a deal reached last month
between Washington and four other Central American
countries, a Costa Rican Embassy official said
Tuesday.
"We're confident we're going to get a deal," the
official said, speaking on condition on anonymity.
"The idea is to wrap up the week of January the
19th."
The Bush administration announced last month that it
had reached a free trade pact with four Central
American countries - El Salvador, Guatemala,
Honduras and Nicaragua - after a year of
negotiations. But Costa Rica refused to sign onto
the pact, saying it needed more time to consider
U.S. demands to open key services sectors, including
telecommunications and insurance.
U.S. and Costa Rican negotiators are meeting this
week in preparation for what is expected to be a
final round of negotiations later this month. This
week's talks are focusing on services, telecoms,
textiles and environmental issues, the embassy
official said.
Costa Rica and the United States are close to an
agreement on telecoms, but talks on insurance issues
are not as far along, the official said.
Costa Rica is pushing for more favorable terms on
textile and sugar market access than the United
States has given the other Central American
countries, he said.
However, U.S. sugar and textile industry groups have
already blasted the U.S.-Central American Free Trade
Agreement, or CAFTA, for being too generous in those
areas.
The Bush administration will formally begin free
trade talks with the Dominican Republic next week in
the hopes of concluding an agreement that it can
"dock" onto CAFTA and send to Congress as a single
package this spring.
The United States also hopes to conclude free trade
deals with Morocco and Australia in January and
begin negotiations with Bahrain. It plans to launch
free trade talks with Colombia, Peru and Panama in
the spring and with Thailand sometime later this
year.
INS Considers
Opening Market
The Instituto
Nacional de Seguros - INS - the national insurance
company has said that it will consider opening the
market to competition within 5 years.
INS president, Germán Serrano Pinto, said that if
Costa Rica has no other way but to open the
insurance market in order to sign the free trade
agreement - CAFTA - then there should be a period of
adjustment and Serrano considers 5 years is required
to pass the necessary legislation to adjust the
market conditions and create a superintendent of
insurance to regulate the industry.
Serrano also commented that insurance is one of the
major points in the trade agreement which Costa Rica
walked out of the negotiations with the Unite States
last month. The other Central American countries of
Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala
signed the trade agreement with the U.S.
LACSA Will Have Sky
Marshalls
Líneas Aéreas de Costa Rica S.A. will be the first
Central American airline that will have Costa Rican
security officials aboard it's flights to the United
States, said yesterday Minister of Security, Rogelio
Ramos.
LACSA belongs to Grupo TACA, the regional air
carrier, has daily flights to the U.S.
Minister Ramos said that the measurers would take
effect immediately, though security officials may
not be present in every flight. Ramos said that he
has a request by the U.S. embassy in Costa Rica
asking that all flights from Costa Rica to the U.S.
have an armed security officer on board.
Last month the TSA (Transportation Security Agency)
in the U.S. asked that all flights into the U.S.
have armed security on board to neutralize any
terrorism attempt.
TACA, which owns LACSA, has indicated that it will
accept the new requirements for it's flights to the
U.S. adding that it will add to passenger security,
the aviation industry and as well protect it's
airplanes and crew.
Seven Chinese, Taiwanese Die in Explosion Aboard
Fishing Boat
An explosion
aboard a Costa Rican owned tuna fishing boat killed
five Chinese and two Taiwanese crew members,
officials said Tuesday.
The incident aboard the Talamanca II occurred on
Dec. 7 about 800 miles off the coast of Mexico and
some 2,070 miles northwest of Puntarenas, Costa
Rica's chief Pacific port.
Six survivors, all Chinese, reached shore only on
Monday.
Officials with the company that chartered the ship,
Servicios Maritimos del Pacifico, told local
reporters that a fire started in an engine room and
led to an explosion that sank the 82-foot-long
vessel.
The Security Ministry, one of the agencies handling
the case, said crew members aboard the nearby Tarzan
28 saw emergency flares sent up from the Talamanca
II and rescued the survivors, who were later
transferred to another ship that brought them to
Puntarenas.
The Immigration Directorate said the survivors,
Chinese aged 18 to 20, would be repatriated to their
homeland.
Those killed included five Chinese crew members and
two Taiwanese: Captain Ho Jung Kun and machinist
Cheng Luang Ljen.
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US to unveil new immigration
policy
US President George W. Bush will
unveil a plan Wednesday that will give legal status to illegal foreign
workers who have obtained jobs in the United States, the White House said
Tuesday.
In addition, Bush will also propose to put illegal workers already in the
United States on a path towards legal status in Wednesday's immigration
policy speech, officials said.
The president has been working on a way "to match willing workers with
willing employees," White House press secretary ScottMcClellan said.
"It's important that we have a fair immigration policy and an immigration
policy that addresses those economic needs," McCellan said.
The announcement comes amid Bush's upcoming visit to Mexico next week for a
regional summit and talks with Mexican President Vicente Fox. The
immigration policy has been a source of frequent tension between the two
leaders.
There are some 10 million undocumented workers in the United States, about
half of them from Mexico. Bush has ruled out granting a blank amnesty to
illegal immigrants living and working in the United States.
The new immigration plan will be Bush's first major policy initiative as he
gears up for re-election in November. The Latino population has been growing
and represents a swing voting bloc that Bush aides see as key to victory.
DNA confirms US mad cow from
Canada
DNA tests have confirmed that the US
cow in Washington State discovered to have BSE in December came from Canada,
Canadian and US officials made the joint announcement Tuesday.
Dr. Ron DeHaven, the chief veterinarian of the United States Department of
Agriculture, and Dr. Brian Evans of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency made
the announcement at a press conference Tuesday.
The results have been highly anticipated since US officials revealed the
country's first mad cow case on December 23, 2003.
The news is another blow to the Canadian cattle industry, which has
experienced losses of more than 1.9 billion US dollars since the first
Canadian case of mad cow was detected in May in Canada's province of
Alberta.
Evans confirmed that test conducted in Canada "fully complement those
returned by the US laboratory" and that "from the outset took seriously that
the possibility could have been a Canadian-born animal."
Both DeHaven and Evans maintain the food chain is safe, and that it is
premature to draw a sweeping conclusion from one piece of information.
Investigations will continue to determine how the animal became infected,
whether it was a feed problem, and whether there are any remaining animals
in Canada that need to be tested.
Responding to the DNA test results, Federal Agriculture Minister Bob Speller
told reporters there are still many outstanding questions such as how and
when the cow became infected.
Speller noted how the closely knit North American industry has complicated
the trace back. "I think it's important to note ... the cow in question
could have easily originated from the U.S. or Canada. The fact is that this
animal was sired by a bull from the U.S., and was born in Canada before
being exported to the U.S," he added.
"I invite the United States to continue to work closely with us on a North
American approach to managing the risk of BSE," he said.
Looking ahead to a face-to-face meeting with his US counterpart Ann Veneman
on January 16, Speller promised to lead a trade mission to Japan, South
Korea and Mexico beforehand.
Earlier on Tuesday, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin told reporters that
he will press for the reopening of the American market when he meets with US
President George Bush. Martin and Bush are expected to hold bilateral talks
next week at the Summit of the Americas.
Currently the United States imports only boneless meat cuts from young
cattle. US officials said that there will be no decision on resuming live
cattle trade with Canada until the United States finishes investigating the
latest case of mad cow.
Speller assured Canadians that the Canadian government is making the case
for reopening the borders internationally, based on strong "scientific
rationale."
Mad cow, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, infects and creates holes in
the brains of cattle. Humans can develop a deadly form of the disease by
eating contaminated beef. An outbreak in Britain in the 1980s left 143
people dead.
Schwarzenegger urges voters to help curbing financial woes
Warning California could go bankrupt,
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday called for voters' support to
approve a 15-billion-dollar bond to save the populous US state from a
financial crisis.
The bond "will save our state from a June bankruptcy," Schwarzenegger said
in his first State of the State address before the joint session of
California Legislature in the state Capitol in Sacramento.
Schwarzenegger inherited a deficit of nearly 15 billion US dollars when he
was elected in California's historic recall election last October. The state
has to repay 14 billion dollars in due loans.
The Hollywood star-turned politician also vowed to reign in government
spending to curb spiraling deficits.
"We have no choice but to cut spending, which is what caused the crisis in
the first place," he said. "We cannot give what we do not have. If we
continue spending and don't make cuts, California will be bankrupt."
Schwarzenegger has already released a list of about 40 billion dollars in
spending reductions, as well as changes to the state health insurance
program that costs taxpayers about 10 billion dollars annually. He proposed
limiting wages for doctors and pharmacists.
Since taking office, Schwarzenegger has scrapped a bill to triple the car
taxes, and invoked emergency powers to make payments to cities and counties.
Schwarzenegger said he wants California to get its fair share of Indian
gaming revenues, and will ask for a complete audit and overhaul of
government to eliminate agencies with overlapping responsibilities.
He said schools and colleges and universities will have to bear some of the
financial burden ahead, but that fees for higher education should be capped
at no more than 10 percent a year.
The governor promised to restore California's "business climate" and place
job creation as "a priority of this Legislature."
"Jobs provide a solid foundation for families ... jobs, jobs, jobs. The more
jobs, the better," he said.
Schwarzenegger, who also plans to lobby US Congress to keep California's
military bases open, said he will become the state's jobs czar. He said he
will go around the country and to other countries, urging others to visit,
buy California products, see its attractions and hire its workers.
In a response following the speech, Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson said
Democratic lawmakers would cooperate with Schwarzenegger, "but we will not
capitulate to this governor on issues of core Democratic values."
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