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CAFTA

Canadian company threatens El Salvador with CAFTA lawsuit over mining project
22-Dec-2008 Upside Down World
A Canadian mining company intends to sue El Salvador’s government for several hundred million dollars if it is not granted permission to open a widely unpopular gold and silver mine that scientists warn would have devastating effects on local water supplies.
El Salvador warned of CAFTA-DR lawsuit by mining company
13-Dec-2008
A Canadian mining company and its American subsidiary have threatened the government of El Salvador with a lawsuit after it failed to receive regulatory approval to begin digging for gold and silver in an area some 65 km from San Salvador. The proposed mine has drawn intense opposition from civil society and church-based groups, although the mining company maintains that it enjoys broad public support in El Salvador.
Dealing with a bad deal: Two years of DR-CAFTA in Central America
18-Nov-2008 COHA
Two years have now passed since some Central American countries implemented DR-CAFTA’s mandates, and governments, farmers, and workers across the region are beginning to suffer the consequences of an unfair deal.
Ending 4-year battle, Costa Rica approves CAFTA
12-Nov-2008
Costa Rica is finally ready to join the Central American Free Trade Agreement.
Costa Rican economist says CAFTA is a bad deal
3-Nov-2008
Costa Rican economist and former presidential candidate Ottón Solís spent the spring at the University of Florida as the Bacardi Family Eminent Scholar, teaching a course on free-trade agreements in the Americas at the university’s Center for Latin American Studies.
Go Ahead Given For Approval Of Remaining TLC Bill
31-Oct-2008
The Sala Constitucional (Constitutional Court) resolved in record time the appeal by legislative members of the Partido Acción Ciudadana (PAC) and Frente Amplio parties on the constitutionality of the Intellectual Property bill, the last of the "complimentary" laws that is required to be passed by the Legislative Assembly to ratify the Tratado de Libre Comercio (TLC) - free trade agreement with the United States.
Mood Shift Against Free Trade Puts Republicans on Defensive
31-Oct-2008
The U.S. has led the way in efforts to lower barriers to global trade since World War II, despite opposition from unions and voters hurt by foreign competition. This election could put trade-liberalization on ice for a while.
Guatemala forum decries FTA with US
10-Oct-2008 Political Affairs Magazine
The free trade agreement between Central American and the US has failed to accomplish all the supposed fairness and pledges advocated by its promoters, participants at the Social Forum of the Americas stated here this week.
Costa Rica given more time to ratify free trade deal
2-Oct-2008 Inside Costa Rica
October 1 was the deadline for Costa Rica to ratify and join the Central American Free Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA). However, Costa Rica now has until January 1, 2009, to ratify the trade deal.
Cafta: Trade deal has hidden qualities
21-Sep-2008 FT
In May 2004, when government officials from the US, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala gathered in Washington to sign a 2,400-page trade agreement, there was a sense of achievement in the air. Four years later, that early enthusiasm and optimism has come down several notches.
Costa Rica court strikes down CAFTA bill for overlooking indigenous
12-Sep-2008 Tico Times
Costa Rica could miss its Oct. 1 deadline to pass law reforms needed to enter the Free Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA) because of a legal snag in the final bill on intellectual property: Nobody thought to ask the country’s indigenous people.
Costa Rica top court blocks US trade pact approval
12-Sep-2008 AP
Costa Rica’s highest court on Thursday overturned an intellectual property law demanded by the US prior to the enactment of the Central American Free Trade Agreement. The Constitutional Court ruled that lawmakers improperly passed the bill — which included provisions on biodiversity — without consulting Indian groups.
Costa Rica: Social groups to protest tomorrow for the independence of the courts from the executive
2-Sep-2008 Inside Costa Rica
Dozens of organizations of the Movimiento Social (Social Movement) will be convening on Tuesday in front of the Poder Judicial de Costa Rica, in downtown San José, to demand the magistrates of the Corte Plena (Full Court) its independence from the powers of the State and reject its alliance with the Poder Ejecutivo (Executive branch of the government).
Clock ticks on free trade pact with US
25-Aug-2008 Tico Times
As Costa Rican lawmakers return today from a weeklong vacation, time grows tight to pass two laws required to implement the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA). Lawmakers must pass a bill amending the agreement, as well as a bill that strengthens intellectual property rights, before an Oct. 1 deadline.
Amendments to CAFTA trade deal passed
8-Jul-2008 Guanacaste Journal
The long and arduous road toward final approval by Costa Rica of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the United States has suffered yet another delay.
Costa Rican Congress approves ending its 84-year-old insurance monopoly
2-Jul-2008
Costa Rica is saying goodbye to its 84-year-old insurance monopoly as it opens the industry to national and international competition.
Report from El Salvador: Why They All Keep Coming
1-Jul-2008
Having just spent time south of the border in a poor country whose major export is people, I’ve seen firsthand what’s driving people north - and why conventional political solutions aren’t going to deter desperate Salvadorans from coming to the U.S. Largely missing from this year’s campaign is any serious reappraisal of our foreign, military, and trade policies that have forced millions Latin Americans to uproot themselves and seek opportunities for a better life far from home.
Dominican Republic-U.S. trade deficit jumps to US$688M on imports
13-May-2008
In the first three months this year the country posted a trade deficit with the United States of US$688 million, much higher than the US$426 million in the year earlier period, reports newspaper Hoy.
Sweetheart Deal
6-May-2008
The deadline for completion of a new farm bill has been pushed back to May 16. But the endless wrangling over a piece of legislation that Congress once hoped to finish in 2007 has not induced a significant change in the thinking of those who regard it as an opportunity to lock in lush new benefits for American agricultural producers.
U.S. sock makers wage war on Gildan imports
6-May-2008
Just two years after launching an ambitious plan to become a major player in the North American hosiery business, Gildan Activewear Inc. finds itself caught up in an international trade dispute over the flood of socks into the U.S. from Honduras.