Prensa Latina, Cuba

Costa Rican Unions against US FTA

30 June 2006

San Jose, Jun 30 (Prensa Latina) Secretary of the Internal Front of the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) Fabio Chavez Friday assured unions would apply to all possible resources to hamper the implementation of a commercial alliance with the US.

The leader stated that the people’s referendum would say the last word and expressed his confidence on the non-implementation of the agreement even although the congress endorses it as there is a growing need to defend the social estate that alliance intends to abolish.

Representative of the Frente Amplio Party Jose Merino, openly rejecting the agreement, considered the FTA would provide the transnational companies with vital resources of the nation.

Democracy is stepping backward, corruption is horrific, neoliberal right defenders on power are responsible for this affront to independence, its weakness and decomposition, he stressed.

The agreement will force Costa Rica to open national market to the US agriculture importations without having Washington really involved in the elimination of subsidies.

It will concede rights to the investors and thus it will hamper the implementation of policies boosting sustainable development among other serious disadvantages, the legislator remarked.

The Judicial Power of the Constitutional Court ordered the translation of the FTA into the reading system for blind people (Braille) what will delay analysis by the parliament.