Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, February 11,  2003

SUMMER IS OVER: Students at this elementary school in Guadalupe show how they feel about Monday's start to the school year.

Classes Begin Amidst Confusion
After last minute scrambling by the Ministry of Education to negotiate the terms of the 200-day school year calendar, classes began at the nation's public schools yesterday amidst reported irregularities, including missing teachers,
school principals and transportation. (Click for more)

E.U. Foreign Trade Commission To Vote
On C.R. Trade Privileges Today
Costa Rica Foreign Minister Roberto Tovar expressed his confidence Costa Rica's trade privileges with the European Union will be reconfirmed today. The European Commission is scheduled to again discuss the possibility of revoking or altering the trade privileges it grants to non-traditional export products from Costa Rica, Colombia and other countries.
(Click for more)

Clumsy Drug Smuggler Arrested At Airport After Using Fake I.D.
In one the more bizarre drug-trafficking incidents in recent history, the Ministry of Public Security's Drug Control Police on Friday arrested a man trying to smuggle nearly one kilo of cocaine out of the country at Juan Santamaría International Airport. The smuggler caught the attention of officials when they found that the person was attempting to use a fake passport under the name of someone prohibited from leaving the country.
(Click for more)

Palmito Exports Bouncing Back Thanks To Free-Trade Agreements
Thanks to recent free-trade agreements with Mexico, Chile and Canada, Costa Rican heart of palm (palmito) exporters are recovering from a three-year slump in sales and profits, the Costa Rican Foreign Trade Promotion Office (PROCOMER) said.
(Click for more)

Dancing the Salsa
Don't miss tonight's dance with Yaguaré and move your hips to the salsa rhythm and your feet to the Cumbia tunes at 9 p.m., at Salón Italia, in Santa Lucía, road to Barva, Heredia, 357-4610.

Asian Arts
Learn Chinese Arts such Tai Chi, Chi King, Feng Shui, and more with Dr. Jeff Nagel at Sol Café in San Pedro. Info: 224-3922.

Mothers This is for You
Go to Zingari Dance Studio if you're pregnant and take some gymnastics classes or if you already have a baby, the studio offers you a macrogimnastics to increase stimulation for babies 2 mo. old and up. Info: 282-1127.

Classes Begin Amidst Confusion
By Amanda Schoenberg
aschoenberg@ticotimes.net


After last minute scrambling by the Ministry of Education to negotiate the terms of the 200-day school year calendar, classes began at the nation's public schools yesterday amidst reported irregularities, including missing teachers, school principals and transportation.

Although news sources reported a lack of teacher's at San José area high schools, the Association of Secondary School Teachers (APSE) press director Norma Umaña said there was no national teacher's strike. Umaña claimed disorganization at the Ministry of Education led to the various problems with public schools nationwide, including rural schools that lacked transportation for students and teachers and principal who have not yet been appointed.

"The problems were not because teachers didn't want to give classes," said Umaña.

According to assistant principal Jeannette Bonilla, the Rincón Grande High School in Pavas, in western San José, started the year without a principal and with only 16 classrooms for the 1100 registered students.

The school only opened its doors to seventh grade students yesterday, while eighth grade students will attend Tuesday. Bonilla hopes to have all grades attending normal classes by Wednesday.

The school has alerted the Ministry of Education to its problems and hope to have a new principal by mid-week.

"The Ministry said we had to begin classes, but we were not given the sufficient resources to do so," said Bonilla.

The Liceo de Pavas, (Pavas High School) was erroneously reported to have closed its doors to students because of a lack of high school teachers. However, school director María Luisa Ortiz said the school was working normally on the first day of classes, without significant problems, despite having little time to prepare for the influx of students in February, instead of March, this year.

Minister of Education Astrid Fischel could not be reached for comment.

E.U. Foreign Trade Commission To Vote
On C.R. Trade Privileges Today
By Fabian Borgés

Costa Rica Foreign Minister Roberto Tovar expressed his confidence Costa Rica's trade privileges with the European Union will be reconfirmed today. The European Commission is scheduled to again discuss the possibility of revoking or altering the trade privileges it grants to non-traditional export products from Costa Rica, Colombia and other countries.

Costa Rica is part of the European Union's (EU) "Generalized System of Preferences" (GSP) program -- a unilateral concession that allows certain non-traditional exports to enter European markets tariff-free.

The products on each country's GSP list are evaluated regularly to see if they still meet the requirements for tax exemptions. If exports of a product reach a certain volume during three consecutive years, the product "graduates" from the program and becomes subject to regular tariffs. The EU is considering revoking Costa Rica's privileges. (TT Daily Page, Jan. 15, 23, 28, Tico Times Jan. 31)

Over the course of the last month, Costa Rican diplomats, foreign trade officials and former presidents have intensely lobbied European leaders in hopes of convincing them to reject proposals that would eliminate the privileges. The have argued that the tariffs would make Costa Rican exports too expensive and would drive them out of the market.

Costa Rica feels it should be rewarded and not punished for increasing sales of its products while managing to protect the environment and provide relatively high wages and good working conditions for workers. It claims eliminating the privileges would affect the thousands of Nicaraguan immigrants who work for non-traditional export companies and send a part of their salary back to their families.

So far, the lobbing efforts, which have included meetings with the foreign relations and trade ministers of each of EU country as well as top members of the technical commission on trade, have staved off any EU action.

On Jan. 29 the trade commission rejected the original proposal that intended to revoke the privileges in March. Now there are three proposals on the table, two of which would buy Costa Rica plenty of time.

The first proposal is similar to the original one and consists of revoking the privileges on July 1. The second proposal would delay the "graduation" until Jan. 1, 2004. The final proposal, issued by Commissioner Chris Patten, would consist of gradually revoking the privileges as of 2004, giving producers, exporters and importers time to adapt.

"We firmly support Patten's proposal to apply the measures gradually as of 2004," Tovar told reporters. "Our hope is that the commission will reach a consensus on the proposal and that it will eventually be ratified."

While optimistic that the third proposal will be the one to prevail, Tovar said the country is willing to accept the second proposal, which he feels would buy the country enough time to sign a permanent bilateral trade agreement with the EU.

The proposal selected by the commission will then be transferred to the Council of Ministers where it will then need a two-thirds majority to be ratified. If the council is unable to reach an agreement, they will have an additional three months to discuss the matter. If a decision is not reached by then, the Commission's decision would be ratified by default.

As a last minute effort to convince EU leaders, Foreign Trade Minister Alberto Trejos will meet with the Commissioner who issued the original proposal and is now backing the first proposal.