Costa Rica
Costa Rica is finally ready to join the Central American Free Trade Agreement.
Costa Rican economist and former presidential candidate Ottón Solís spent the spring at the University of Florida as the Bacardi Family Eminent Scholar, teaching a course on free-trade agreements in the Americas at the university’s Center for Latin American Studies.
The Sala Constitucional (Constitutional Court) resolved in record time the appeal by legislative members of the Partido Acción Ciudadana (PAC) and Frente Amplio parties on the constitutionality of the Intellectual Property bill, the last of the "complimentary" laws that is required to be passed by the Legislative Assembly to ratify the Tratado de Libre Comercio (TLC) - free trade agreement with the United States.
Costa Rica’s Legislative Assembly ratified in second and final debate a free trade agreement with Panama that will open up the commercial channels between the neighboring nations.
October 1 was the deadline for Costa Rica to ratify and join the Central American Free Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA). However, Costa Rica now has until January 1, 2009, to ratify the trade deal.
The Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the purposes of patent procedure is not in line with the norms and ethical principles of Costa Rica. Civil society, the scientific community and the different congregations should have had a more broad discussion on this Treaty including its ethical, environmental, social, economic and legal implications. Unfortunately, this did not happen and the decision to vote the US-DR-CAFTA, with its obligation for Costa Rica to accede to the Budapest Treaty, at referendum was not taken with a generalized prior informed consent.
Costa Rica could miss its Oct. 1 deadline to pass law reforms needed to enter the Free Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA) because of a legal snag in the final bill on intellectual property: Nobody thought to ask the country’s indigenous people.
Costa Rica’s highest court on Thursday overturned an intellectual property law demanded by the US prior to the enactment of the Central American Free Trade Agreement. The Constitutional Court ruled that lawmakers improperly passed the bill — which included provisions on biodiversity — without consulting Indian groups.
Dozens of organizations of the Movimiento Social (Social Movement)
will be convening on Tuesday in front of the Poder Judicial de Costa Rica, in downtown San José, to demand the magistrates of the Corte Plena (Full Court) its independence from the powers of the State and reject its alliance with the Poder Ejecutivo (Executive branch of the government).
As Costa Rican lawmakers return today from a weeklong vacation, time grows tight to pass two laws required to implement the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA). Lawmakers must pass a bill amending the agreement, as well as a bill that strengthens intellectual property rights, before an Oct. 1 deadline.
Costa Rican food companies are focusing on major trends like organics and social values to build their export platform, as an association agreement between the EU and Central America is expected to be reached in 2009.
The first major disruption of the nine-month-old Costa Rican-Panamanian free trade agreement came on July 6, when approximately 200 truck drivers from Panama, Costa Rica, and other Central American countries paralyzed cargo crossing from Paso Canoas, Panama to Cerro Punta, Costa Rica.
Costa Rican officials announced they are not satisfied with the market opening proposal issued by the European Union (EU) prior to the beginning of the fourth round of negotiations for an eventual EU-Central America agreement. Costa Rican trade officials stated that they “do not perceive an interest on the part of the Europeans to advance the process.”
The long and arduous road toward final approval by Costa Rica of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the United States has suffered yet another delay.
Costa Rica is saying goodbye to its 84-year-old insurance monopoly as it opens the industry to national and international competition.
Interview with Silvia Rodríguez Cervantes of Costa Rica’s Biodiversity Coordination Network about the national struggle against joining UPOV (Union for the Protection of New Plant Varieties) as required by CAFTA.
Costa Rican lawmakers are divided over who makes a better investor in their country, the United States or the European Union, according to a recent questionnaire.
What will become of Costa Rica? That’s the question on my mind, now that my adopted country has narrowly accepted CAFTA. Our national slogan is "Pura vida!" meaning "pure life," and it’s commonly used as an affirmation that life is good. It’s easy to understand how such an expression could catch on here: Costa Rica has virtually no enemies, a temperate climate, and a hell of a lot of good beaches. However, as an expatriate whose previous hometowns have been despoiled by global capitalism, I find it difficult to imagine that life will be as pure or as good once the effects of CAFTA begin to kick in.
Costa Rica, one of the few Latin America countries still with a state-run telephone sector, is expected soon to open to big foreign players as part of a trade deal with the United States.
Representatives from Central America and the European Union met yesterday, March 17th, to negotiate new trade policy. One of the key elements being proposed by the Central American committee is the lowering of tariffs imposed on certain agricultural products to allow for more competitive trade.
