The Tico Times Online Daily Page

Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, March 20, 2003

PREPARING FOR THE WORST. As part of a series of measures aimed at protecting the country in case in case of a continued increase in international oil prices and the possibility of a prolonged supply shortage, the Costa Rican Oil Refinery (RECOPE) has begun negotiations with new oil suppliers including Colombia and Ecuador.
AFP/Tico Times

Environment Ministry Conducts
Diagnosis of Country's Oil Situation
Environment Minister Carlos Manuel Rodríguez Tuesday issued a report on the country's current oil consumption, how it would fare in case of a prolonged oil shortage and what alternatives exist to the country's two traditional oil suppliers, Venezuela and Mexico.
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March 20

Costa Rican Flower Fiesta (Ficoflor)
Flower exhibits, garden tool sale, seeds, paintings, etc., Thurs.-Sat.,
March 20-22, 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; Sun., March 23, 9 a.m.-9 p.m., Llano Grande,
Cartago. Info: 551-2071.

Book Presentation
?Culturas Populares y Políticas Públlicas en México y Centroamérica? (Popular
Culture and Public Policy in Mexico and Central America), 7 p.m. at Juan
Santamaría Museum, Alajuela. Info: 441-4775.

Belly Dance Show
Special belly dance show by Christina Bates, teacher and director of the
Aiewa School in Canada, at 9 p.m., Aya Sofya Restaurant. Info: 221-7185.

Costa Rican Documentary Presentation
?Se Prohibe Bailar Swing,? produced by Gabriela Hernández, including a discussion
with the protagonists and a swing class at 7 p.m., at the Spanish Cultural
Center, Plaza del Farolito, Barrio Escalante. Info: 257-2919.

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Environment Ministry Conducts
Diagnosis of Country's Oil Situation
By Fabián Borges
Tico Times Staff

Environment Minister Carlos Manuel Rodríguez Tuesday issued a report on the country's current oil consumption, how it would fare in case of a prolonged oil shortage and what alternatives exist to the country's two traditional oil suppliers, Venezuela and Mexico.

The current international situation creates two distinct scenarios the country needs to prepare for - a continued increase in the price of petroleum and products derived from it and the possibility of a prolonged supply shortage, Rodríguez explained.

Rodríguez noted that most (72%) of the country's oil imports are dedicated to the transport sector. He recommended finding long-term transportation alternatives such as the proposed high-speed electric train from Alajuela to Cartago via San José.

"Compared to other countries in the region, Costa Rica is in a privileged situation. Since most of our power is generated from renewable resources, the increase in oil prices does not affect the price of electricity," he explained. "Only 2% of the country's electricity is generated by burning fuels, compared to between 40% and 50% in other Central American countries."

The public sector needs to reduce its energy consumption, he said. Despite using only 3% of the country's total oil imports, the government must set an example by adhering to the National Energy Conservation Plan. The plan, which was approved five years ago, orders each institution create its own specific energy saving plan, he argued.

"Over last months, the Costa Rican Oil Refinery (RECOPE) has been preparing an emergency plan," he explained. "In case of a supply shortage, RECOPE has the capacity necessary to store enough fuel for between 30 and 45 days. There's also an additional emergency supply. The possibility of a supply shortage is small, but we can't discard it and must plan ahead for it."

Rodríguez also announced the country is negotiating with new oil suppliers.

Venezuela and Mexico have significantly reduced the amount of oil they export to other countries. Venezuela is only now starting to recover from a two-month-long oil workers' strike, which dramatically reduced its production. The country still hasn't returned to the production levels present before the strike.

In recent years, Mexico has increased the amount of its oil production dedicated to supplying its internal market and has reduced the number of new exploration projects. For these reasons, we've begun to search for new providers, he argued.

"RECOPE has been in negotiations with several Latin American countries," Rodríguez explained. "Part of the current void will be filled by Colombian fossil fuels and finished products. We're also in negotiations Ecuador."

The report was submitted to the President's Emergency Oil Taskforce (TT Daily Page, Mar. 12), which will now proceed to study it and propose concrete measures and how to implement it.

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Central American Presidents
Back U.S. War Against Iraq

San Salvador (AFP) - The Presidents of El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama on Tuesday announced their full support for U.S. military action in Iraq. In a press release issued by the Salvadorean Foreign Ministry, the Presidents announced "the time has come for the government of Iraq to disarm itself."

The leaders of the four countries jointly announced they "regret Iraq has failed to comply with United Nations Security Council resolution 1441, which called for the country's immediate disarmament."

Presidents Francisco Flores (El Salvador), Mireya Moscoso (Panama), Ricardo Maduro (Honduras), and Enrique Bolaños (Nicaragua) stated that "the time has come for Iraq to put an end to its negative attitude and repeated delays, which only serve to further increase suspicions of the presence of weapons of mass destruction in its territory."

The press release clarifies that the comments issued do not include Costa Rican President Abel Pacheco or his Guatemalan counterpart, Alfonso Portillo.

The presidents asked the "members of the UN Security Council to assume their collective responsibility to enforce resolution 1441, in order to reaffirm the faith and credibility that has been bestowed upon them by the international community."

See Friday's TT Print Edition for full coverage of local reaction of the war.

-AFP

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Central American Countries
Take Steps to Unify Tariffs

Guatemala (AFP) - Central America's Economy and Foreign Trade Ministers agreed to present next week a country-by-country listing of the more than 1,400 products that have tariffs that differ from the ones agreed upon in the area's proposed joint customs regimen agreement. The products in question represent 22% of all the products that enter the countries from abroad.

"Each country will issue a listing of the products that have tariffs that differ from the rest of the region," Honduran Industry and Commerce Vice-Minister Erwin Guerrero explained. "We will then meet to analyze which tariffs can be changed right away and which will require more time."

"If a country has a different tariff for a product than the other countries, it will be required to change it," he added.

The agreement was reached during this week's meeting of the Council of Central American Economy Ministers (Comieco) in Guatemala City.

"There are 841 products whose tariffs can be synchronized right away," Costa Rican Foreign Trade Minister Alberto Trejos explained. "The other 630 are more complicated. We hope to have all products fully synchronized by the end of the year."

According to Trejos and Salvadorean Economy Vice-Minister Eduardo Ayala, of the 630 difficult-to-change tariffs, 120 are from Nicaragua and went into effect as a result of a Just Taxation Law recently approved by its government without consulting with the rest of the region.

"They arbitrarily modified them (the tariffs)," Trejos explained.

"I've committed myself to solving the Taxation Law problem," Nicaraguan Growth and Industry Minister Mario Arana explained. "We're in the process of approving a new taxation reform package which will restore the recently changed tariffs. It should go into effect sometime between May and June."

The joint customs regime, which is scheduled to begin operating in early 2004, is considered a necessary step before the region's free-trade agreement with the U.S. (CAFTA) can go into effect.

-AFP

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