The Tico Times Online Daily Page

Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, October 3, 2003

PEACE PROCESS CONTINUES: Nobel Peace Laureates Oscar Arias and Guatemala's Rigoberta Menchu continue to lobby for peace in Central America.
AFP/TT

U.S. Offers to Negotiate
Telecom with ICE Unions
SAN SALVADOR (AFP) - U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick yesterday offered to discuss opening the Costa Rican Electricity and Telecom Institute's (ICE) monopoly directly with the institution's unions.
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G-21 Will Meet in Argentina Next Week
BUENOS AIRES (AFP) - The Foreign Relations and Trade Ministers of countries in the Group of 21 are expected to meet here next week to unify their proposals for the elimination of agricultural subsidies in developed countries.
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Arias: Too Much War in the World
GUATEMALA (AFP) - Former president of Costa Rica, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and presidential hopeful Oscar Arias yesterday questioned the need for military spending and lamented the lack of importance most countries - particularly the United States - place on peacemaking.
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U.S. Offers to Negotiate Telecom with ICE Unions

SAN SALVADOR (AFP) - U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick yesterday offered to discuss opening the Costa Rican Electricity and Telecom Institute's (ICE) monopoly directly with the institution's unions.

"We have to deal with the problem (telecommunications) in the coming months," Zoellick said during a press conference in El Salvador. "I offered to help Costa Rica by discussing the matter with the Costa Rican telecom firm's (ICE) union and with legislators. We're trying to promote reform and openness."

Zoellick was blasted in Costa Rica by politicians, union leaders and the business community after threatening on Wednesday to exclude Costa Rica from the Central America Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA), unless it agreed to open its telecommunications market.

Until now, Costa Rica has refused to discuss opening its telecom market during CAFTA negotiations. President Abel Pacheco has promised to hold a national debate in the coming months to decide the future of ICE. Recent polls show most of the country's population strongly opposes eliminating the institution's monopoly.

"I understand the issue is sensitive for Costa Rica, and understand its historic, social and political importance," Zoellick explained. "For that reason, we're not requesting the country privatize it. However, the market must be opened and reformed."

Zoellick said he was able to "prove" during his visit to Costa Rica that deficiencies exist in ICE's cell phone system and that the country is at a "competitive disadvantage" in the globalized world.

"We must have greater openness and reform in that market. After all, it's imperative for the next generation of Costa Rican businesses to be able to compete in the world," he said.

During his meeting with Central American trade ministers, Zoellick also warned that Costa Rica and Guatemala's decision to continue to be part of the Group of 21 (G-21) -- a bloc of developing countries that seeks to put an end to agricultural subsidies under the World Trade Organization (WTO) - "could cause big problems for CAFTA."

Following the press conference, Zoellick left for Nicaragua, where he will meet with government officials today.

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G-21 Will Meet in Argentina Next Week

BUENOS AIRES (AFP) - The Foreign Relations and Trade Ministers of countries in the Group of 21 are expected to meet here next week to unify their proposals for the elimination of agricultural subsidies in developed countries.

At press time, it remained unclear whether Costa Rica and Guatemala, the two Central American countries that form part of the group, will attend the Oct. 10 summit.

This will be the controversial group's first meeting since the World Trade Organization's Ministerial Meeting three weeks ago in Cancún, Mexico.

The goal of the meeting is to define a common position for the next WTO summit, which is scheduled to take place Dec. 15 in Geneva, Switzerland.

The group also will discuss the "peace clause" requested by the United States and the European Union - and approved by the WTO - to stop developing countries from filing disputes against them for damages to their productive sectors caused by subsidized exports.

The clause originally was set up as a temporary measure to give developing countries time to eliminate their subsidies - something that seems unlikely given the failure of the Cancún Summit. The clause is set to expire on Dec. 31 of this year. Developed countries want to extend the agreement.

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Arias: Too Much War in the World

GUATEMALA (AFP) - Former president of Costa Rica, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and presidential hopeful Oscar Arias yesterday questioned the need for military spending and lamented the lack of importance most countries - particularly the United States - place on peacemaking.

"Unless the world realizes how stupid it is to spend $800 billion a year on soldiers and weapons, it will be very difficult to have peace and democracy," Arias said during a conference on peace and democracy organized by 1992 Nobel Peace Laureate Guatemalan Rigoberta Menchú.

Arias, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987, also announced that the Arias Foundation for Peace would unveil an "Ethics Code for Weapons Transparency in the World" next Thursday in San José.

"How can you justify that 1.2 million human beings live on less than a dollar a day and half the world's population lives on less that two dollars a day?," Arias questioned. "In a country like India, with a population of more than a billion, 800 million people are unable to read or write. However, $17 million are spent each year on defense."

In his opinion, it is impossible for peacemaking efforts to move forward "in a world where almost everyone talks about war, very few about peace, and all the big news is always about war.

"In the United States they seldom honor men and women of peace," he said. "They almost always honor soldiers, the military and warriors."

Arias, president of Costa Rica from 1986 to 1990, also questioned Central American countries' military spending, noting that hundreds of thousands go without education in the region.

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