ISDS Case Map
CAFTA
US - Central America Free Trade Agreement
With a little under two months until the October referendum on the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement, time is quickly running out for Costa Rican president Óscar Arias to gain the necessary public support to pass CAFTA. The trade pact is strongly opposed by those who believe that it will not help the Costa Rican economy, while being significantly beneficial to the US.
The Pro-Liberation Front against the Central America Free Trade Agreement-Dominican Republic (CAFTA-DR) demanded the Costa Rican government publish results of a poll it commissioned about the level of public support for the agreement.
The top opposition leader in Costa Rica said he wants to renegotiate a free-trade agreement with the US, citing as a precedent the US revamping of a similar agreement with Peru.
The future of Central American agriculture is threatened by developed countries' demand for biofuels and US-sponsored free trade agreements.
Leaders of the movement against the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA) spoke to about 200 people yesterday outside the Supreme Elections Tribunal in San José.
The growth in exports being celebrated by the Bank of Guatemala has nothing to do with CAFTA.
One year after CAFTA-DR took effect in Guatemala, the Guatemalan Social Organizations Collective (COS) presented evidence on Wednesday that its alleged benefits are deceptive and false.
Dominican Republic still has some 10 commitments pending to fully access the Free Trade Agreement signed with the United States and Central America (DR-CAFTA), and for that reason confronts a situation defined as "serious" against its other competitors.
Costa Rica's PAC party (Citizen Action) president Otton Solis has warned of the potential increase in unemployment if CAFTA-DR, the free trade treaty with the United States, is approved.
Dominican Republic was ratified as country president of the Intellectual Property Work Group for the American Hemisphere, in recognition of the Customs Agency's (DGA) work in copyrights, as the DR-CAFTA trade agreement and international treaties stipulate.
