Costa Rica moved one step closer to entering a free-trade agreement with the United States this week.
Lawmakers approved the third of 11 bills required, in some form, to put the country in compliance with the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA), approved by referendum in October.
The controversial law, a rallying point for the treaty's opponents, would give developers of new plant varieties the exclusive right to market them for up to 25 years. Lawmakers applied a fast-track process to the bill in October and passed it in an initial debate Monday.
The Citizen Action Party (PAC), which opposes the treaty, plans to challenge the bill before the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV), in a process that could take up to a month. For the bill to become law, the assembly must approve it a second time, and President Oscar Arias must sign it.
The bill's final passage would block efforts by three environmental groups to hold a referendum on the proposal. The Supreme Elections Tribunal (TSE) gave a green light last month to the environmentalists to begin collecting signatures for a referendum.
Monday's vote is a triumph for President Oscar Arias' administration, which has been pushing CAFTA for months. Still, several lawmakers said they doubt that all 11 CAFTA bills can be passed by a Feb. 29 deadline.
Arias will decide in the coming weeks whether to ask for an extension from the treaty's other signers – the United States, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic. |
| 
| 
| Exchange Rates
