ISDS Case Map
CAFTA
US - Central America Free Trade Agreement
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.
Guatemalan and US labor groups filed a complaint Wednesday with the US Department of Labor alleging that Guatemala had failed to uphold its own labor laws as required under the Central American Free Trade Agreement.
Figures from the Customs Agency (DGA) show Dominican Government has sacrificed RD$2.3 billion since the United States-Central America Free Trade Agreement began.
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.
Dominican businesspeople do not see any advantages on the Free Trade Agreement signed between the Dominican Republic, the US and Central America (CAFTA-DR), said Ignacio Mendez, president of the Dominican Industrials Association.
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.
The Dominican Republic and Guatemala are the only two countries in DR-CAFTA that have not been able to access money from the Millennium Account due to internal issues.
Direct foreign investment in Dominican Republic jumped to US$1.7 billion in 2007, year in which the DR-Cafta trade accord took effect in the country, the Central Bank said.
Canadian sock manufacturing giant Gildan Activewear Inc. (TSX:GIL) could get caught in the middle of U.S. election-year politics as the Bush administration decides whether to end the company's duty-free shipments of socks from Honduras.
