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Costa Rica Takes the
Lead on Free Trade Agreement with Canada
A trade delegation from Costa
Rica arrives in Canada September 15 to push for more Canadian interest in a
one year-old free trade agreement with the Central American nation.
Led by Tomas Duenas Leiva, a former trade minister who negotiated the
Canada-Costa Rica Free Trade Agreement, the team seeks to increase the quarter
of a billion dollars worth of trade currently booked annually between the two
countries.
With Duenas, who now heads Costa Rica's Foreign Investment Board after
securing the 2002 trade deal, are more than a dozen other business leaders in
a delegation organized by the Costa Rica-Canada Chamber of Commerce, itself
formed to promote expanded ties between the trade partners.
Costa Rica is Central America's most durable democracy with 3.9 million
well-educated citizens and advanced services. It has long been a favourite
destination of Canadian snowbirds and eco-tourists.
Trade has traditionally focussed on industrial and primary goods;
Canadian newsprint and Costa Rican coffee have been prominent, but are
expected to be displaced in the future by Canadian construction goods, and
Costa Rican IT services.
But the stable southern nation is a growing regional centre for the
manufacture of pharmaceuticals and microelectronics, and actively 'exports'
its information technology services.
Duenas Leiva will address an audience of Canadian importers and exporters
at breakfast Sept. 17, and meet with Michael Welsh, Director General for Latin
America from Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade on Sept.
16.
He and other members of the delegation will also hold two and half days of
individual meetings with potential Canadian customers, clients and investors.
"We're excited to share our optimism about expanding business between
Canada and Costa Rica under this new Free Trade Agreement", said Jason
Alexander Cunliffe, the Canadian-born president of the Costa Rica-Canada
Limited
Foreign Investment
The rhythm of increase of direct foreign investment in Costa Rica in recent years has been rather slow, according to a United Nations world report on the issue.
While the figure for the year 2001 was $454 million, and $642 million for last year, it will be $466 million for this year, according to Central Bank estimates. And in 2002 it would have been a lot lower, but the partial purchase of the local brewery Florida Ice & Farm
- brewers of Imperial, Pilsen, Rock ICE and
other local brands - by Heineken for$230-million
prevented the drop.
Along the same lines, in a study, the Chamber of Exporters of Costa Rica and the Committee of Free Zones of the Americas assert that this nation needs a new strategy to attract investment.
This is so because it competes in the high-technology sector and because the World Trade Organization demands changes to that end, the two organizations said. The study points out that Costa Rica is currently competing with Ireland, Mexico, Chile, and several Southeast Asian nations.
Visit from Starbucks
A delegation from Starbucks Coffee Company is to visit Costa Rica in the coming few days, in order to strengthen their ties with Costa Rican growers, according to the Costa Rican Coffee Institution (ICAFE in Spanish).
Starbucks is the largest buyer of Costa Rican gourmet coffees.
Novel Idea to
Fund Conservation
Costa
Rica might be a remote pimple on the map of the
world, but its environment minister believes he
has found a solution to the global funding
crisis facing nature conservation.
"Next month I am going to the World Bank.
They will give me a loan for my national parks.
And I will pay them in environmental
services," Carlos Rodriguez announced
matter-of-factly at the World Parks Congress in
Durban, South Africa, yesterday.
What on Earth are environmental services, you
might ask. And will the hard-nosed bean-counters
at the World Bank understand what he is talking
about?
Rodriguez, a former park ranger and head of his
country's national parks agency, says the idea
is really quite simple.
It's a bit like paying a toll fee to drive on a
road. It's the same idea as paying a bill for
the electricity and water in your home, or
buying a ticket to watch a movie.
And when it comes to the environment, the world
should not
expect a free lunch either, he says.
Can he give concrete examples of these
environmental services?
What about the beauty of a landscape, he
responds. Tourists bring lots of foreign
exchange to his country because they want to see
its natural beauty. And if they want to see that
beauty, they should pay something for its
maintenance and upkeep.
The birds and the bees are another example.
Besides pollinating food crops, flowers and
trees, they also attract tourists.
Costa Rica's natural forests also provide a
service to the world by trapping carbon dioxide
pollution from factories in other countries,
thereby slowing down the rate of global warming.
Farmers, factories and power companies which use
vast amounts of water to produce food, products
or electricity should pay towards the costs of
protecting wetlands, lakes and water catchments
in national parks and nature reserves.
Rodriguez said Costa Rica raised more than $10
million a year by levying a carbon-fixing charge
on anyone who bought fuel.
The country is also considering charging
tourists for biodiversity conservation and
landscape beauty, and a separate environmental
service charge for all water users.
Rodriguez insists these payments are not green
taxes but straightforward costs for
environmental services.
Is he serious about the loan from the World
Bank?
"People might laugh at me, but I'm more
than serious. I've got an appointment with them
next month," he says.
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Argentina pays 2.9 billion dollars to IMF
The Argentine government Thursday paid 2.9 billion US dollars to the International MonetaryFund (IMF) after reaching an accord on rescheduling its debt.
The term for repayment of the debt came last Tuesday when negotiations for a mid-term agreement with the IMF were at a crucial moment.
As no agreement was made that day, Argentina defaulted. The IMFasked Argentina to pay up immediately if the program to 2006 was to be formalized. "Pay first and we sign later" was the central message of a statement which was issued Wednesday by IMF managing director Horst Kohler.
On Thursday morning, it was clear that the government was goingto pay soon. Cabinet Chief Alberto Fernandez hinted in a radio address that it was likely that the payment was going to be made that day.
Fernandez said the 2.9 billions dollars would be returned to the country in the short-run.
"All of the capital is reimbursable almost immediately," he added.
The country's economy has seen a modest recovery after shrinking by 10.9 percent last year, but more than half of the country's population live in poverty and the unemployment rate is 18 percent.
Big airlines cancel some 9/11 flights
American Airlines, Lufthansa and British Airways are among carriers canceling some Thursday flights because fewer people than usual were traveling on the second anniversary of the terrorist attacks, the Bloomberg News reported.
European carriers said they canceled some US flights because
of a drop in demand among business travelers, while some US airlines cut back because of a decline in sales for the day, according to the report.
US airlines reduced flights by as much as 5 percent, compared with 25 percent last year, said the Air Transport Association, an industry research group.
While American Airlines, the world's largest airline, reduced some flights, United Airlines and Delta, the No. 2 and 3
airlines, said they didn't cut any.
Remembering Sept. 11, Bush says war on terror goes on
US President George W. Bush, taking part in a series of low-key events marking the second anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, said Thursday a videotape of Osama bin Laden reminded the United States that "the war on terror goes on."
"His rhetoric is trying to intimate, and create fear, and he's not going to intimidate America," Bush said after visiting US soldiers wounded in Iraq at an Army hospital in the Washington area.
"We are at war because of what he and his fellow killers decided to do two years ago, and we will stay at war until we have achieved our objectives," he said.
Bush said US officials were still analyzing the video broadcast on Al-Jazeera TV on Wednesday to assess its authenticity. The video showed bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, walking down a rocky path in a mountain area.
CIA analysts said they were confident that an audiotape accompanying the video footage contained the voice of al-Zawahri, but were not yet sure about the purported voice of bin Laden.
In the audiotape, the voice identified as bin Laden praised the Sept. 11 hijackers. Al-Zawahri, meanwhile, declared that "the battle with the Americans has not yet started."
Earlier, Bush started his remembrance activities by attending an early-morning prayer service followed by a moment of silence outside the White House.
Bush and his wife Laura took part in the prayer service at St.John's Church across from the White House. Secretary of State Colin Powell and FBI Director Robert Mueller, along with White House deputy chief of staff Harriett Miers, read from scriptures.
"Today our nation remembers. We remember a sad and terrible day, September the 11th, 2001," Bush told reporters outside the church after the service. "We remember lives lost. We remember the heroic deeds. We remember the compassion and the decency of our fellow citizens on that terrible day."
At 8:46 a.m. (1246 GMT), the moment the first hijacked plane hit the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York two years ago, Bush was joined by Vice President Dick Cheney and more than 1,000 members of their staff for a moment of silence on the South Lawn outside the White House.
White House officials said the low-key remembrance by Bush was in keeping with his view that the day should be solely about the victims' families.
In the same token, Cheney scrapped plans to attend the ceremony at the site of the fallen World Trade Center towers at the request of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who said he was concerned that the increased security measures required for vice presidential travel would have inconvenienced or delayed family members.
Members of Congress gathered outside the Capitol to sing "God Bless America," as they did just hours after the attacks two years ago. They also saluted passengers of Flight 93, which was believed to be heading toward the Capitol before crashing in a rural field in Pennsylvania.
The House of Representatives voted to set up a memorial in Washington to honor the victims of terrorist attacks at home and abroad. It also passed legislation to posthumously award the Congressional Gold Metal to emergency responders killed in the attacks.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld presided over a wreath laying ceremony at the Arlington National Cemetery, not far from the Pentagon, to remember the 184 people killed when a hijacked plane plowed into the military headquarters. He then participated in a service at the Pentagon chapel.
More than 20,000 Pentagon workers fell silent at 9:37 a.m. (1337 GMT) to commemorate the moment when the Pentagon was hit by the hijacked plane.
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