The Tico Times Online Daily Page

Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, February 23, 2004

VISITING: Supachai Panitchadki, director general of the World Trade Organization (WTO), is in Costa Rica this week to meet with government officials and take part in the Cairns Group's 26th ministerial meeting. See related story.
Tico Times/AFP

Director General of WTO
Visits Costa Rica Today
Supachai Panitchadki, director general of the World Trade Organization (WTO), is in Costa Rica today to meet with government officials and promote the reactivation of stalled WTO multilateral trade talks.
(Click for more)

Sea Turtle Experts
Meet in Ostional
Turtle fans have converged on San José this week to discuss the impact of humans on the world's marine turtle populations.
(Click for more)

February 23

Clinic on Cattle Judging
Everyone is invited to this cow and horse fair and clinic. The clinic is run by Gabriel Vélez from Colombia and begins at 8 a.m. at the Pedregal Exhibit Center in San Antonio de Belén, Heredia. The fair will be opened until Sun., Feb. 29. Info: 298-4292, 298-4260, eventos@pedregl.co.cr

Trip to Palo Verde and Isla Pájaros
Register today to travel this weekend, Feb. 28-29. The tour is organized by the Organization for Tropical Studies. Info: 236-1713.

Colorgrafía Workshops
For kids and adults, today through Friday at the Kandisky Gallery in San Antonio de Belén, Heredia. Info: 293-7871, 841-3427.

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Director General of WTO
Visits Costa Rica Today
By Fabián Borges
fborges@ticotimes.net

Supachai Panitchadki, director general of the World Trade Organization (WTO), is in Costa Rica today to meet with government officials and promote the reactivation of stalled WTO multilateral trade talks.

The official visit coincides with 26th meeting of the foreign trade ministers of the countries of the Cairns Group, which is taking place here this week (TT Oct. 17, 2003; Jan 30). The Cairns Group is composed of 17 agriculture-exporting countries dedicated since 1986 to promoting the liberalization of agricultural products under the WTO.

"What is happening here this week is very important," said Ronald Saborío, Costa Rican ambassador to the WTO. "Both events - the visit by Director General Supachai and the Cairns Group ministerial - are a sign of the important part Costa Rica has played in the WTO."

Supachai will begin his visit this morning meeting with Saborío and Costa Rican Foreign Trade Minister Alberto Trejos. Later, he will meet with acting president Vice-President Lineth Saborío before having lunch with the President Abel Pacheco's economic team and other ministers. The President is out of the country on a four-country tour (TT Daily Page, Feb. 20).

On Tuesday, Supachai will address the ministers of the Cairns Group, according to the Costa Rican Foreign Trade Ministry.

Born in Bangkok, Thailand, in 1946, Supachai has Ph.D. in Economic Planning and Development from Netherlands School of Economics (now known as Erasmus University). Since becoming director general of the WTO in September 2002, Supachai has pushed for greater liberalization of trade, particularly in agriculture, where he has argued in favor of the elimination of price-distorting export subsidies and domestic supports.

The Cairns Group ministerial kicks off today with a series of technical meetings aimed at analyzing the state of multilateral trade talks and proposing strategies to jump start the current round of trade negotiations - the Doha Development Round - which has been stalled since the collapse of the Cancún, Mexico, ministerial meeting last September following disagreements over agricultural subsidies, said Ronald Saborío (TT Sept. 12, 19, 2003).

On Tuesday, the trade ministers of the Cairns countries - Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Paraguay, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand and Uruguay - will begin a two-day closed-door meeting.

In addition to being addressed by Supachai on Tuesday, the ministers will meet with Mexican Foreign Trade Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez, who presided over the Cancún meeting, and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick.

Over the last month, Zoellick has argued strongly in favor of continuing WTO talks. Recently, he sent a letter to trade ministers of the WTO's 146 member countries outlining the basic framework of a proposal to get negotiations back on track by July of this year.

Zoellick is expected to explain the proposal to the Cairns Group and discuss the issue of export subsidies and domestic support for agricultural products. He also will meet in private with Trejos to discuss the U.S.-Central America Free-Trade Agreement (CAFTA), Saborío said.

If the Cairns Group meeting is successful, the group will issue a joint statement on Wednesday with specific recommendations outlining the direction WTO talks should take in the coming months.

Read this week's print edition or digital PDF version for more on Supachai's visit and the results of the Cairns Group meeting.

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Sea Turtle Experts
Meet in Ostional

Turtle fans have converged on San José this week to discuss the impact of humans on the world's marine turtle populations.

An expected 800 to 1,000 guests will kick off the first day of the 24th Annual Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation today.

The theme of this year's Symposium, held in the Herradura Hotel through Sunday, is Sea Turtle Lifescapes. Topics will include the niches sea turtles fill in their different ecosystems, how they fit into the environment of the planet as a whole, and the role that humans play in those systems.

The first session begins Monday afternoon and is called Sea Turtles and Socio-Economics. Sessions on Sea Turtle Assessment and Monitoring, Global and Regional Sea Turtle Conservation and Research; Sea Turtle Modeling and Prediction, Technology and Sea Turtles, and Novel Insights in Sea Turtle Conservation and Research continue through the week.

This year's symposium will review the changing role of conservation and the importance of international conferences in forming conservation policy and activities.

Last week, turtle experts from 21 countries met in Ostional, a nesting ground on the Pacific coast of the Nicoya Peninsula, for the XI Marine Turtle Specialists' Meeting of Latin America. During the meeting, specialists discussed the ecological, social and economic elements of marine turtle conservation.

Seven species of marine turtles are on the verge of extinction, a problem that is exacerbated by egg hunters and the capture of turtles in the sea for their meat and shells.

For more info on this week's Symposium, call 283-9725, e-mail: mailto:mclarits@hotmail.com, or visit the Web site: http://www.seaturtle.org/symposium/

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Wednesday October 26, 2005