17-Sep-2008
Office of the Ombudsperson of Costa Rica
The Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the purposes of patent procedure is not in line with the norms and ethical principles of Costa Rica. Civil society, the scientific community and the different congregations should have had a more broad discussion on this Treaty including its ethical, environmental, social, economic and legal implications. Unfortunately, this did not happen and the decision to vote the US-DR-CAFTA, with its obligation for Costa Rica to accede to the Budapest Treaty, at referendum was not taken with a generalized prior informed consent.
1-Sep-2008
Bolivia Rising
The right laments the "isolation" of the Bolivian economy from the global currents of trade because it has put three crosses against the free trade agreement with the United States and there isn’t the will to take part in an agreement with the European Union, the "biggest markets on the planet".
15-Aug-2008
Bolpress (original Spanish)
In the early hours of Thursday, representatives of the governments of Colombia, Ecuador and Peru agreed to let Peru legislate intellectual property on its own to accommodate its Free Trade Agreement with United States, on the margins of Decision 486 of the Andean Community of Nations (CAN). Bolivia voted against this move in order to preserve the principles and foundations of the CAN.
23-Jul-2008
Jamaica Observer
Article 149 requires the EC Party and the Signatory CARIFORUM states to provide for the protection of plant varieties in accordance with the TRIPS Agreement and to consider, in this connection, accession to UPOV, 1991.
16-Jul-2008
Radio Mundo Real
Bolivia’s position on intellectual property rights, on the one hand, and biodiversity, on the other, had earlier put a damper on Colombia and Peru’s drive to sign a trade deal with the US and is now affecting that to reach one with "the 27".
31-Oct-2007
Prensa Latina
The Board of the Costa Rican Legislative Assembly admitted that it is studying 943 of 1,097 motions against one of the implementation laws of the Free Trade Agreement with the United States which poses danger for Costa Rican farmers and biodiversity
25-Sep-2007
IRC Americas Program
CAFTA is a legal instrument that favors multinational expansion without limits, leaving the most underprivileged sectors of Costa Rica totally unprotected, among them women and the poor. The strong movement against ratification of CAFTA will not end with the approval or rejection of the agreement on 7 October 2007, but could well be the seed of broader social transformation.