- Title: COSTA RICA: Costa Ricans narrowly back free trade with U.S.
- Date: 8th October 2007
- Summary: CHILDREN ON STREET CELEBRATING AND WEARING T-SHIRTS THAT READ: "YES" AND CHURCH IN THE BACKGROUND
- Embargoed: 23rd October 2007 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Costa Rica
- Country: Costa Rica
- Topics: Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA8ONFFHRCRCD7W2VQXYV4802YS
- Story Text: Costa Ricans narrowly approve a free trade deal with the United States in a referendum that has split the Central American nation like no other issue in decades.
Fifty-two percent of voters backed the Central American Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA, according to returns from 95 percent of polling stations following a referendum on Sunday (October 7).
Forty-eight percent were opposed.
"Costa Rica has said "yes" to the Free Trade Agreement and that is, for me, a holy will. You have given me a role and as a convinced democrat, I shall obey your will," said Costa Rican President Oscar Arias.
The vote lifted Washington's standing in Latin America where the U.S.
image has suffered in recent years after leftist leaders took power in countries like Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia.
Arias said that poverty, job opportunities, violence and uneven access to education and health divides the country, not the CAFTA.
"The Free Trade Agreement is not what divides us. What divides us is the poverty in which 900,000 Costa Ricans live in. It's the scandalous gap that divides the rich from the poor. It's the lack of formal jobs that marginalise our youth. It's the inequality in the access to education and health. It's the violence that sows insecurity among our communities."
This is a victory for President Oscar Arias, the 1987 Nobel peace laureate who argues that Costa Rica needs to open its economy more as it is a small country with few natural resources.
Costa Rica was the only country not to have ratified CAFTA and the only one to take it to a popular vote. The deal also includes Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.
Critics fear it will mean a flood of cheap U.S. farm imports and damage state-run companies, endangering funding for Costa Rica's welfare state.
The agreement exposes state-run sectors like telecommunications and insurance to competition from foreign firms.
The White House said on Saturday (October 6) it would not renegotiate the deal if Costa Ricans voted against it. It was the second such warning in only a few days from Washington, which wields heavy influence in Central America.
The United States has struggled recently to push its trade agenda in Latin America. A planned Free Trade Area for the Americas plan has stalled largely because of opposition from regional giant Brazil.
The referendum split Costa Rica, a coffee-producing nation of 4 million people known for its political stability in a region that was torn by civil wars in the 1980s.
In the largest march in Costa Rica in years, about 100,000 people filled the streets of the capital last weekend to protest the trade pact.
Costa Rica, which has no army and boasts of pristine beaches and jungles, has enjoyed almost uninterrupted democratic government for over a century and has much better free education and health care than its neighbours.
Coffee farming, tourism, call centres and microchip manufacturing support the growing economy, which is more diversified than its neighbours. It attracts migrant workers from neighbouring Nicaragua and Panama.
Supreme Elections Tribunal President and Magistrate, Dr. Luis Antonio Sobrado, called for unity and dialogue for a better tomorrow.
"We should all find the necessary wisdom to accept that, in spite of everything, democracy won today and tomorrow, bridges will have to be built and opportunities for dialogue and the construction of a consensus will have to be created. So that all Costa Ricans, without differences, shape the future of our families for a better tomorrow."
The U.S. Congress narrowly approved CAFTA in 2005.
Democrats in Congress last week sought to reassure Costa Rican voters their country would not lose existing trade benefits if the pact were defeated. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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