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Costa Rica Reaches
Free Trade Deal with U.S.
Costa Rica reached and agreement with
the Unite States on Sunday that will allow that nation to join four of its
neighbors in creating a Central American Free Trade Area with the United
States, officials of the two countries announced.
The agreement came after two weeks of intense negotiations aimed at
overcoming differences in such areas as telecommunications and insurance
that had prompted Costa Rica to back out at the last minute from completing
the CAFTA talks last month with the four other nations, Guatemala, El
Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras.
The two nations agreed to sign a free trade agreement after the Central
American nation gave in to U.S. demands to open up its telecommunications
and insurance sectors.
U.S. officials said they were pleased with the market-opening language
finally reached with Costa Rica, which had sought to protect its monopoly
operations in telephones and insurance.
Last month, Costa Rica pulled out of trade talks with the United States in
the final round of negotiations for the Central American Free Trade
Agreement. Four other nations -- El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and
Nicaragua -- did reach an agreement with the United States in December,
after nine rounds of negotiations. One of those rounds was in Houston.
Costa Rican officials delayed their participation in the regional accord
because of disagreement with U.S. negotiators over tricky issues such as
telecommunications, insurance and agriculture.
Costa Rica finally agreed to fully open its insurance market to foreign
competition by 2011. It also agreed to open three key sectors of its
telephone market to competition — wireless services, private network
services and Internet services.
While the country will maintain bans against foreign competition in other
areas of telecommunications, U.S. negotiators said they were satisfied that
they had torn down barriers in the areas of most interest to U.S. companies.
"Costa Rica needed a little more time to complete its participation in CAFTA,
and we're very pleased it has joined its Central American neighbors in this
cutting-edge, modern free trade agreement," U.S. Trade Representative Robert
Zoellick said in a statement.
The negotiating breakthrough was announced jointly in Washington by Zoellick
and Costa Rican Trade Minister Alberto Trejos.
That delay marked a setback for the United States because Costa Rica has the
largest economy in the region and accounts for a third of U.S. trade with
the five partner countries. Last year, U.S. exporters sent $3.5 billion
worth of goods to the Central American nation and importers brought in $3.4
billion worth of products from Costa Rica.
"With each Central American nation, we worked to tailor market access
provisions to reflect individual circumstances, and that work is now
complete with Costa Rica," Zoellick said.
For Costa Ricans, one of the most contentious issues was the U.S. demand for
the country to open up its government-run telecommunications and insurance
sectors. During a news briefing Sunday, senior U.S. trade officials
described Costa Rica's telecommunications sector as a "decades-old
monopoly."
The trade agreement also requires Costa Rica to open its insurance market to
competition with the majority of the market opening by 2008 and fully
opening by 2011.
Costa Rican officials wanted the United States to open up its borders to
agricultural products such as sugar and protect its agricultural industry
from subsidized U.S. goods, such as rice.
Earlier this month, U.S. sugar growers sent a letter to President Bush
asking him to withdraw sugar concessions given in the proposed Central
American Free Trade Agreement.
Senior U.S. trade officials told reporters that under this agreement, Costa
Rica will be allowed to export an amount of sugar that equals one-tenth of 1
percent of total U.S. sugar consumption.
The agreement also allows current U.S. farm exports to Central America to
become duty-free immediately. Tariffs on most remaining U.S. farm products
will be phased out within 15 years.
In 2003, U.S. goods exports to Costa Rica totaled $3.5 billion, up about 13
percent from the previous year, while the United States imported $3.4
billion in goods from Costa Rica, an increase of 9.7 percent from 2002.
Costa Rica accounts for about one-third of U.S. trade with the five CAFTA
countries. Adding the Dominican Republic to CAFTA would create the second
largest U.S. export market in Latin America behind Mexico.
The United States currently has free trade agreements with Mexico and
Canada, its partners in the North American Free Trade Agreement, and
individual deals with Israel, Jordan, Chile and Singapore.
More
Domestic Violence
Rocío Gómez Mora, 22, was murdered by sentimental partner, Narciso Mora
Abarca, 27, last night in the community of Alajuelita, in the south side of
San José.
The young mother of a five year old little girl was stabbed to death in her
parent's home in front of them.
The murder followed a heated argument between the two, where Gómez Mora
wanted to abandon the relationship angering Mora Abarca to the point where
be decided to take her life.
According to witnesses, Mora Abarca went to his in-laws home to talk to his
partner following the argument. There he went to the kitchen and threatened
the woman with a knife. When she tried to get away the man attacked her
mortally.
The woman's father tried to stop the man but was overpowered. The Red Cross
arrived at the scene shortly after the call to 911 was placed and found the
woman still alive, dieing shortly thereafter as Red Cross attendants
couldn't do more to save her life.
Narciso Mora Abarca was detained by police at the scene and was immediately
handed over to the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ).
Rocío Gómez Mora is the 5th woman this year to die at the hands of her
partner.
Tico interns at NASA lab
Three young Costa Rican graduates from the
University of Costa Rica in engineering and physics, will serve as interns
monitoring the gases produced by the Vasimir plasma engine, which Costa
Rican-born NASA astronaut Franklin Chang designed as a means to power
spacecraft to travel to Mars.
Jose Castro, Gonzalo Araya, and Frank Lavigni are already on duty at the
NASA Space Propulsion Lab in Houston, Texas, according to Jorge Diaz,
coordinator of the internship program. According to Diaz, who also developed
a miniature mass spectrometer to be placed in the plasma engine, the young
researchers are likely to partake in other programs, too. The trainees are
part of the NASA-CENAT (the National High Technology National Center of
Costa Rica) internship program.
Economy slows down
The rate of growth of Costa Rican production
remains on the down side. Last November, the annual variation of the Index
of Monthly Economic Activity was 4.2 percent, as compared to 4.9 percent
last October.
The Index is an indicator that shows the monthly performance of the
activities included in the Gross Domestic Product.
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US steps up
crackdown on citizens visiting Cuba
The United States has stepped up its crackdown on the Americans who visit
Cuba so as to further isolate the Caribbean country, The Washington Times
reported Sunday.
US citizens, who visit Cuba and fail to put it on the post-trip declaration
form, can be charged with perjury and their name can be entered into the
Homeland Security Department database, the paper said.
If they admit to traveling to Cuba, the paper added, they are subject to a
fine of as much as $10,000 dollars.
Last October, US president George W. Bush announced plans to step up the
enforcement of the Trading with the Enemy Act, a law that makes it illegal
for US citizens to spend money in Cuba while traveling the country.
In the two months after Bush's remarks, 171 persons had been denied
permission to travel to Cuba, 44 persons returning to the United States
after visiting Cuba faced civil prosecution and 54,000 passengers visiting
the country were investigated, the paper said.
Each year, there are 156,000 Americans visiting Cuba, with an estimate of
22,000 to 25,000 Americans traveling to Cuba illegally.
The United States has imposed blockade on the Caribbean country since the
late 50s of the last century. There is no sign of any thaw in the relations
between the two countries, despite a strong call in the Untied States for
normalizing relations.
In 2002, former US president Jimmy Carter paid his landmark visit to Cuba,
becoming the first US president - in or out of office - to visit the
country. He urged the Bush administration to lift its ban against Cuba and
take steps to normalize relations with the Caribbean country.
Philippine FEALAC conference to "set direction": diplomat
Trade, political and security will highlight the discussion of the Forum on
East Asia and America Cooperation (FEALAC) when 32 senior officials and
foreign ministers from both regions gather in Manila for a 4-day meeting
commencing on Jan. 28.
Philippine spokesman for FEALAC and ambassador George Reyes said the foreign
ministers would discuss how to expand the intra-regional trade between East
Asia and Latin America and how to combat terrorism and transnational crime
such as drug trafficking and money laundering.
Reyes said the discussion would result in the Manila Plan of Action, which
is to be issued at the end of the conference.
"The Manila Plan of Action will set the direction of FEALAC in the next two
or three years. This year's meeting will put more emphasis on political,
trade and security issues," he added.
The ambassador said FEALAC countries have rich trade and investment
possibilities as East Asia continues to be a dynamic region and Latin
America becomes a rapidly growing market of more than 400 million consumers.
"There is also a vast untapped reservoir of tourism potential that can be
developed through a better appreciation by the individual citizens of the
FEALAC countries of the richness and diversity to be found in the member
countries," he said.
The ministerial meeting, which 32 foreign ministers from two regions will
attend, is the biggest diplomatic event in the Philippines for 2004.
FEALAC members in East Asia are Australia, Brunei, Cambodian, China,
Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, NewZealand,
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Latin American members are Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia,Costa Rica,
Cuba, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay
and Venezuela. Guatemala and Nicaragua will be admitted as new members this
year. Enditem
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