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CAFTA
Negotions to Start Jan. 27; Goal Is to Conclude in 2003, Trejos Says
Nov 28, 2002 Costa Rican Foreign Trade Minister Alberto Trejos said Nov. 20 that the inaugural negotiating session on the proposed Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the United States would start Jan. 27, 2003, in San Jose, Costa Rica. The parties hoped to conclude the negotiations in 2003, Trejos told a conference sponsored by NetAmericas, which is the Research Network on Trade in the Americas, an initiative of the secretary-general of Organization of American States. The United States proposed negotiating a free trade agreement with the five Central American countries of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua early this year. The five countries comprise the Central American Common Market. U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick Oct. 1 sent Congress the statutorily required notice under the Trade Act of 2002 of the Bush administration's plans to launch free trade agreement talks with the five Central American countries (19 ITR 1684, 10/03/02). Before the administration can launch new trade talks with a potential FTA partner, it must give Congress 90-days' notice. The proposed CAFTA may lead to greater convergence of positions within the Free Trade Area of the Americas negotiations, Trejos said. The path to the FTAA "may look better if some bilateral deals, starting with this one, succeed," he remarked. In his view, there may be sections of CAFTA that will not be identical for all five countries. For instance, on tariff issues, different schedules might apply for sensitive commodities since certain sectors are sensitive in some countries but not in others. Trejos said that the Central American Common Market missed a lot of
opportunities to become a deeper market. As a result, the five countries
entered the 21st century without a formal dispute settlement mechanism and
without agreement on services and investment issues. Also, the countries
still have significant disharmonies in tariffs and customs procedures.
"Those things are now on the agenda," he said.
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