Costa Rica CAFTA Referendum Set for Sunday, October 7, 2007

The much anticipated referendum vote for the CAFTA (Centra America Free Trade Agreement or TLC in Costa Rica) is scheduled to take place in just a couple of weeks. The aim of DR-CAFTA (Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement) is to liberalize U.S. and Central America markets, creating a free-trade zone similar to that created between the US, Mexico and Canada as a result of  the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

DR-CAFTA provisions eliminate tariffs on basic grains, such as rice, beans and corns both immediately and gradually depending on country and product specific agreements. As such, the agreement particularly affects the rural sector throughout Latin America where small farmers are unable to compete with subsidized agricultural imports from the U.S. This has very troubling implications for poverty and development in a region that is predominantly rural and agriculture based.

Signatories to DR-CAFTA include: the U.S., Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Dominican Republic and Costa Rica.

Country implementation occurred as follows: El Salvador, March 1, 2006; Guatemala, June 1, 2006; Honduras, April 1, 2006; Nicaragua, April 1, 2006; Dominican Republic, March 1, 2007.

COSTA RICA  

Costa Rica is the only country that has not ratified the agreement. The delay in Costa Rica’s implementation has been rooted in significant ongoing opposition from a wide range of civil society groups. Though DR-CAFTA was a divisive issue from the onset of negotiations, it became a nation-wide debate during the 2006 Costa Rican presidential elections between now-President Óscar Arias and opposition candidate Ottón Solís of the Costa Rican Citizen’s Action Party. Solis, who ran on an “anti-CAFTA” platform, came within a mere 3250 votes of the Presidency.  Since then, the opposition to DR-CAFTA has remained strong, with a nation-wide coalition organizing frequent protests and marches in response to a flurry of legal decisions paving the way for an October 7 2007 referendum.