TLC In Jeopardy As
Legislators Fail To
Approve Two SUTEL
Nominations
Opponents of the Tratado
Libre de Comercio (TLC)
- free trade agreement
with the United States -
apparently will not stop
until the December 31
deadline passes and the
trade deal is dead.
The latest roadblock is
the failure of the
legislature to approve
two of the four
nominations to the
Superintendencia de
Telecomunicaciones (SUTEL).
SUTEL is the agency that
will govern
telecommunications in
the country, including
cellular telephone and
internet operators,
which is a requirement
of the Ley de
Fortalecimiento y
Modernización del Sector
Telecomunicaciones, the
law that broke the
telecommunications
monopoly in the country
and required under the
free trade deal.
The Arias administration
has the commitment to
complete all the
requirements in the
trade deal by December
31, the last day it has
to deposit the completed
agreement with the
Organization of American
States (OAS), after it
was given, a second
extension by the trade
partners to the deal.
Under the agreement,
SUTEL is to be in
complete set up by March
2009 and begin public
offerings of the first
telecommunications
concessions by May 2009.
"Sure there are problems
with the TLC, we are in
the hands of the United
States again for our own
failures", said the
ministro d Comercio
Exterior (Foreign trade
minister), Marco Ruiz.
The Autoridad Reguladora
de los Servicios
Públicos (Aresep)
nominated last month
four individuals to head
up the SUTEL for the
approval by legislators,
who on Friday refused
two nominations for
political and business
reasons.
Now, the Aresep must
name two other
individuals for
consideration by
legislators who go on
their holiday vacation
break in less than a
week, which could impede
the SUTEL nominations
and the government's
commitment to honour the
trade agreement.
The TLC negotiations
began in 2004 and has
been an uphill struggle
for Costa Rica, which
put the decision of the
TLC in the hands of the
people with the first
ever referendum on the
issue and the government
having to ask for, not
one, but two extensions
from its trade partners,
- Nicarauga, El
Salvador, Honduras,
Guatemala, the United
States and the Dominican
Republic (the deal known
as CAFTA-DR) - who all
have already ratified
and put in place their
respective agreements. |
