Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, December 5,  2003

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U.S. Congressmen Have
Access to CAFTA Texts
By Fabián Borges
fborges@ticotimes.net

Foreign Trade Minister Alberto Trejos and head Costa Rican negotiator Anabel González yesterday responded to recent news reports that several U.S. Congressmen have copies of the official texts of the Central America Free-Trade Agreement (CAFTA) under negotiation with the United States.

Since the trade negotiations began last January, Costa Rica's negotiating team has refused to allow the Legislative Assembly and local groups access to the texts. They argued that making the texts public could weaken Central America's negotiating position.

When asked about the issues during a press conference yesterday afternoon, Trejos and González admitted U.S. Congressmen have had access to the texts since the negotiations began. They justified this by citing key differences between both countries' laws.

"Costa Rica and the United States have different laws," Trejos explained. "U.S. free-trade negotiations are authorized by the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) law. That law includes provisions that guarantee members of a special congressional commission access to the preliminary negotiating texts. Our trade negotiation laws don't have that requirement."

The Pacheco administration's refusal to make the texts public prompted the Archbishop of San José, Hugo Barrantes, last week to join 14 labor unions, 27 lawmakers and former Costa Rican presidents Rodrigo Carazo (1978-1982) and Luis Alberto Monge (1982-1986) in demanding a moratorium on CAFTA (TT, Nov. 28).

Claiming negotiations have been non-inclusive and secretive, the group has demanded that legislators wait a year before voting on the treaty in order to give all Costa Ricans time to evaluate the official texts and then decide whether CAFTA would benefit the country (TT, Sept. 26).

Under the Costa Rican constitution, the executive branch is in charge of treaty negotiation and Congress' role is limited to ratifying or rejecting the final treaty. Under the U.S. constitution, according to González, Congress is the branch of government in charge of negotiating and modifying international treaties.

"No country would be willing to negotiate a free-trade agreement with the U.S. if the U.S. Congress had the power to modify the final treaty," Trejos said. That's why the TPA and its predecessor, the "fast-track," were created.

Through those laws, the U.S. Congress delegated its negotiating power to the Executive Branch through the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). Through TPA, Congress willingly limits its role to ratifying or rejecting free-trade agreements. It does, however, reserve the right to access and evaluate the progress of ongoing negotiations, she said.

Trejos argued that the Costa Rican Foreign Trade Ministry (COMEX) and the negotiating team had gone to great lengths to keep the general public informed about advances in the negotiating process.

"In terms of transparency and creating a space for public discussion about CAFTA, we have gone well beyond what Costa Rican law requires us to," he said. "The negotiating team and I have kept in close touch with each congressional faction throughout the negotiating process."

González cited COMEX's information campaign and the numerous direct meetings negotiators have held with representatives of the different social sectors as examples of their commitment to transparency.

Trejos cited a ruling made by the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV) last September that upheld the ministry's right to keep the negotiating texts secret as proof of this commitment.

"The issue of whether we are being transparent was questioned and taken to the courts. Sala IV proved the way we have been handling the negotiations has been completely legal," he added. "Handling the preliminary negotiating texts any other way would have been irresponsible."

González asked all Costa Ricans to visit both the COMEX and USTR web sites and compare the amount and quality of the CAFTA information available on each site.

The ninth and final round of CAFTA negotiations is scheduled to begin Monday in Washington D.C.