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Costa Rica

Costa Ricans march against US free trade agreement
26-Oct-2005 Prensa Latina
Costa Rica University students peacefully marched to the National Assembly on Tuesday, expressing their rejection of the signing of a Free Trade Agreement with the United States.
Big Pharma’s free ride
13-Aug-2005 Salon.com
Pharmaceutical companies are using free-trade deals like CAFTA to eliminate global competition — and deny poor patients access to cheaper generic drugs.
Caricom/Costa Rica free trade agreement being held up
13-Jul-2005 Barbados Advocate
The Caricom/Costa Rica free trade agreement is being held up while Costa Rica debates what is, essentially, a model for future trade pacts.
United Nations children’s committee warns about FTA threats
7-Jun-2005 IP-health
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in recommendations made public this week warned that Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) may negatively affect access to affordable medicines and social services for the poor.
Costa Rica balks at free-trade pact
4-May-2005 WSJ
With President Bush’s plan to bind Central America and the US in a free-trade pact already facing tough opposition in Congress, an obstacle has surfaced that further threatens the pact’s chances of passage.
Costa Rica rules out immediate ratification of FTA with US
17-Mar-2005 Xinhua
Costa Rica on Wednesday ruled out the possibility of an immediate ratification of the free trade agreement (FTA) between Central America and the United States due to pressure from economic and social sectors.
Costa Rica: Protests bring country to the verge of paralysis
27-Aug-2004 Costa Rica: Protests bring country to the verge of paralysis
Nationwide protests in Costa Rica that started out with blockades of roads and freeways by truck drivers and which expanded Wednesday to include a broad range of groups threaten to paralyse this Central American country.
FTA: Empowers the rich and weakens the poor
21-Jul-2004
The beginning of the nineties is defined by President Bush (Senior)’s call to establish a united continent for free trade. All countries will become rich by liberalizing their markets. The FTAAs will be a miracle.
Opposition to CAFTA strong in Costa Rica / Oposición a Cafta atrincherada en Costa Rica
1-Jul-2004
Although resistance to a free trade deal with the United States is growing throughout Central America, social activists say the big battle will take place in Costa Rica, where opposition is focused on a proposal to open up telecommunications and insurance to foreign capital.
Divide and conquer: bilateral trade agreements
4-Jun-2004 Dominion
The free trade agreements that are being vigorously negotiated by the US are empowering corporations in a manner that places them at the top of a global hierarchy, matching their economic might with political rights that bypass processes of democratic decision making.
US Treasury Dept pressures Costa Rica
31-May-2004
The attached letter, pressuring Costa Rica to resolve two disputes in favour of US investors, has been denounced as a blackmail by local activists.
Harken v. Costa Rica: US companies employ blackmail in ’free trade’ with Central America
28-May-2004 Harken v. Costa Rica: US companies employ blackmail in ’free trade’ with Central America
Nearly two years ago, Costa Rican nationals and admirers thought they’d been given reason to rest easy. In May 2002, responding to a large-scale mobilization of the country’s environmentalists, President Abel Pacheco announced a moratorium on oil exploration and open-pit mining in Costa Rica.
Costa Rica may derail US free trade plans
29-Mar-2004
As befits a man whose very surnames are enough to conjure up images of Latin American radicalism, Fabio Chaves Castro is threatening to derail an ambitious plan to open up trade between the United States and the five small republics of Central America.
Canada-Costa Rica BIT (1999)
24-Mar-2004