The Tico Times Online Daily Page

Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, January 8, 2004

UNDER PRESSURE: Irate and nervous, Nicaraguans wait in lines outside their country's embassy in San José for documents that will keep them legal under old but newly enforced immigration rules.
See Friday's TT Print Edition for Full Story
TT/Jeffrey Arguedas

All Quiet on the Free-Trade Front
Negotiators have remained tightlipped about agreements reached during the first of two additional rounds of free-trade talks between Costa Rica and the United States this week in Washington D.C.
(Click for more)

Region's Underemployment
Deemed Problematic
Underemployment is Central America's most pressing work-related problem, affecting millions of the region's residents, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said in a San José press conference yesterday.
(Click for more)

January 8

Workshop for Children
Kids ages 8-12 can learn about poisonous animals, their importance, characteristics and more at the Simón Bolivar Zoo at 9 a.m. Cost of the workshop is ¢3,000. Info: 256-0012, 233-6701.

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All Quiet on the Free-Trade Front
By Fabián Borges
fborges@ticotimes.net

Negotiators have remained tightlipped about agreements reached during the first of two additional rounds of free-trade talks between Costa Rica and the United States this week in Washington D.C.

However, President Abel Pacheco said he remains confident the negotiating team will accomplish its mission of bringing home a trade pact that will benefit all Costa Ricans.

"Our negotiators have proven they can move their chess pieces correctly," Pacheco said during Tuesday's weekly cabinet meeting. "They've played with intelligence and have proven they're no dummies. The team is composed of excellent professionals. They are astute and committed to negotiating the free-trade agreement."

Going into this round, both countries had agreed on the majority of Costa Rica's proposal for the partial opening of the Costa Rican Electricity and Telecom Institute's (ICE) monopoly in three specific areas -- broadband Internet, cellular telephones and private data networks (TT, Oct. 31).

"We're very close to closing this chapter [telecom]," Anabel González, head Costa Rican negotiator, told the daily La República. "We still need to sort out some details. We hope to conclude before the end of the week."

Negotiators also hope to reach an agreement on the basic proposal for the opening of the National Insurance Institute's (INS) insurance monopoly.

During the ninth regular round of CAFTA last month, the United States presented Costa Rica with a "maximalist" proposal requesting the majority of the insurance market be opened to competition (TT, Dec. 19).

Costa Rican negotiators have not revealed details on their counterproposal, but admit it is more modest than the one issued by the U.S. They hope to reach a compromise that benefits both sides.

In textiles, Costa Rica argued for greater flexibility in rules of origin -- the criteria used to define where a product was made.

Costa Rican negotiators also requested greater accumulation rights that would extend CAFTA privileges to export products made with fabrics imported from Canada, Mexico, the Andean Pact countries and other regions with which it has signed trade pacts.

Sensitive agricultural products (rice, basic grains, potatoes, onions, sugar, chicken, beef, and pork) are not in the schedule for this round. They will be discussed during the second and presumed final round of bilateral talks set to begin Jan. 19.

However, experts have warned the country's chances of reaching a textile agreement that is significantly better than the one signed between the U.S. and the other four countries would be a challenge.

In December, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick stated that it would be unfair to grant Costa Rica better treatment than its neighbors received.

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Region's Underemployment Deemed Problematic

Underemployment is Central America's most pressing work-related problem, affecting millions of the region's residents, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said in a San José press conference yesterday.

"The most acute problem is not open unemployment, but underemployment or precarious occupation, which is reflected in the fact that the proportion of workers in informal and small-economy rural positions is very high," said Miguel del Cid, an expert from the ILO's regional office.

With a population of 34 million inhabitants, the region has an economically active population of 14 million people, of which approximately 800,000 (5.7%) are openly unemployed.

One in three working Central Americans (more than four million) labor in the most archaic sections of the market, characterized by low levels of productivity and income and a high degree of underemployment or precarious positions that prevail in these countries, explained Del Cid.

At the same time, one in three members of the workforce are in the agricultural sector, which also has high levels of underemployment.

According to the ILO, the movement toward economic liberalization that began in the region in the 1970's has increased neither the quantity nor the quality of employment, as was promised by its proponents.

To the contrary, the unemployment rate rose from 7.2% in 1980 to 10.7% in 2003, the buying power of minimum salaries fell 25% (in some countries it fell 50%), the number of informal workers increased from 32.7% to 46.5% and social security coverage fell from 63.3% to 51.7%.

Only two Central American countries, Costa Rica and El Salvador, can be included with Chile and Peru as the few Latin American countries to see some labor progress in 2003.
--AFP

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Wednesday October 26, 2005