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Country’s Rice Growers Fear U.S. Trade Pact

Autor: Writer

~ 25/08/06

By Blake Schmidt  Tico Times Staff

Río Lagarto, Guanacaste – Disillusioned with life as a beer vendor in the stuffy, smoke-choked suburban Central Valley, Carlos Bolaños packed his bags and headed for the hills of this northwestern province.

He wanted to be a farmer.

He found himself working this yellow patch of a small valley between rolling hills, harvesting Costa Rica’s most basic crop: rice.

“This is my dream. I’m living my dream. I just hope it doesn’t become a nightmare,” he said.

Here, in the well-irrigated plains north of Río Lagarto, about 15 kilometers north of the agricultural town of Cañas, anxiety is brooding in the heart of Costa Rica’s rice industry. Bolaños is one of hundreds of small rice producers here, many of them subsistence farmers, wondering whether upcoming harvests might be their last.

Costa Rica, a country seemingly addicted to rice and beans, is demanding more and more rice. At the same time, small and medium producers here are struggling against ravenous plagues, mounting debts, and competition from importers of U.S. government-subsidized rice.

Another storm cloud is brewing on the horizon for this troubled industry, prompting producers to plead with legislators not to strip them of their protections.

If the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA) is ratified by Costa Rica’s Legislative Assembly, the national rice production industry says it will be left naked before foreign rice growers – largely U.S. farmers benefiting from billions of dollars of government subsidies.

“I’ll be left to cover myself with one hand in front and one hand behind,” said Bolaños, who has taken on “snowballing” debt to cultivate his 6.5 hectares. Producers warn that the national rice industry – particularly small and medium growers – could become extinct within a year if the controversial trade pact goes into effect.

Under CAFTA, the 35% tariffs on rice imports would be eliminated during the next 20 years. Perhaps more significant, rice wholesalers in Costa Rica would no longer be required to buy up all higher-cost, lower-quality domestic rice before turning to importers to buy the grain.

Opponents say CAFTA would mean massive poverty among already struggling farmers as industries like rice production slowly fade. And Costa Rica, where the average person consumes more than a kilogram of rice each week, would have to depend on imports for its dietary staple – the only food product subjected to government price controls.

Not only would that present an anomaly for a rice-rich culture – reliance on imports for a food found in practically every comida típica, from gallo pinto for breakfast, to arroz con pollo for lunch or casado for dinner – it could present a security issue, producers warn.

Costa Rica is the only of seven countries that has not ratified the trade pact. Polls showing declining support for CAFTA (TT, Aug. 18) and a proposal-congested Congress that has fallen behind schedule have complicated the pact’s fate.

President Oscar Arias, a staunch CAFTA supporter, told the daily La Nación this week the pact should be ratified by December. Some legislators aren’t so sure, but in any case, the agreement must be ratified by March 2008 for Costa Rica to take part.

In the Guanacaste rice industry, where the bulk of national rice production takes place, the controversial trade pact is sowing uncertainty and fear.

Tariffs, safeguards and a domestic buying policy protect Costa Rica’s rice production industry, which according to the National Rice Corporation (CONARROZ) employs approximately 60,000 workers in production, logistics, fumigation, retail and more.

CONARROZ says 60% of rice consumed in Costa Rica is produced here. The rest is imported, mostly from the world’s third-largest rice exporter, the United States.

For years, the United States has put billions of dollars into the pockets of its rice producers to keep the industry competitive, drawing fire from the leading trade nation’s trade partners. International activist group Oxfam reported that the United States spends $1.2 billion a year to support its rice industry.

Agricultural subsidies in developed countries was a topic of heated debate during the Doha Round talks, and was ultimately the reason the talks failed last month (TT, Aug. 4).

In addition to being subsidized, the U.S. rice industry works with better technology, seeds and infrastructure.

“I’m not afraid of any U.S. farmers. But look at the advantages they have,” Bolaños told The Tico Times. “If they come here and work my land with my prehistoric seeds and old equipment, then we’ll talk about competition.”

CONARROZ, a leading CAFTA opponent, represents Costa Rica’s 1,100 rice growers and processors.

Critics and CAFTA supporters, including the Association of Free Consumers, say the organization has failed to help develop national rice production in any meaningful way, and call the association a “subsidized rice monopoly” benefiting a few wealthy rice growers and hurting rice consumers, many who live in poverty.

“It’s not important that we produce rice, but that all people can afford rice,” said association president Juan Ricardo Fernández.

However, rice growers claim it’s a security issue.

CONARROZ president Oscar Campos said recent terrorist attacks and natural disasters in the United States have demonstrated how, if the United States becomes the hand that feeds Costa Rica, the country’s basic necessities will depend on the whims of U.S. politics. He said Costa Rica experienced a temporary “crisis” after Hurricane Katrina because the U.S. wouldn’t export any rice.

Fernández said having access to rice is not a problem because “rice is everywhere,” and Costa Rica produces other food items such as fruits on which it could depend during crises.

Pat O’Brien, an economist for the American Farm Bureau Association, a powerful U.S. lobby, said that if CAFTA were ratified, the Costa Rican economy would go through a transition. During this transition, subsistence farmers and small commercial farmers would feel the pinch and some industries like rice production would die off.

In the long run, though, producers will be better off, he said.

“It’s a painful transition … especially for Costa Rican producers who depend on rice as income and a food staple,” O’Brien said, adding that in five or 10 years, producers will have learned to apply their skills to viable industries such as sugarcane or melon production.

This week, Production Minister Alfredo Volio urged restructuring of the agricultural industry to prepare such “sensitive” agricultural sectors as rice for CAFTA implementation.

On a recent hot afternoon, the sweaty, dirt-caked Bolaños drove his dilapidated pink jeep down farm roads showing off Guanacaste’s rice fields. He is slated to become a CONARROZ board member representing the Chorotega region of Guanacaste, a dry, sunny grid of hills and valleys quenched by irrigation canals fed by the massive Lake Arenal reservoir to the northeast.

In this region, where about 60% of domestically produced rice is grown, the increasingly polemic CAFTA debate is tangible.

“The feeling against the United States is going to grow … I’ve talked to a lot of people who are harboring malevolence,” Bolaños said.

Roadway Safety Plan Announced

Autor: Writer

By Blake Schmidt Tico Times Staff

Alarmed by an escalating death toll on the nation’s perilous roads, the Arias administration jump-started a campaign this week to overhaul the nation’s traffic system by improving law enforcement and refurbishing roadway infrastructure.

So far this year, the number of deaths from traffic accidents has surpassed 180, including three in a four-vehicle collision Monday on the Inter-American Highway near the Pacific port town of Puntarenas.

Public Works and Transport Minister Karla González said the “barbarity” on the nation’s highways, coupled with a growing number of cars and people using a road network run thin, is a “time bomb.”

“We have a national problem … we have to say ‘enough,’” she said Tuesday during a meeting with President Oscar Arias and the ministers of Health and Education on the first day of National Road Security week.

The four leaders announced a five-year, multisector plan that will attempt to infuse traffic safety education into school curriculum, beef up highway security, increase fines for speeding and drunk driving, and improve the nation’s unmarked, pothole-riddled roads and highways.

Traffic accidents are the leading cause of violent deaths in Costa Rica, claiming on average more than 600 lives a year for the past five years and driving up costs for the nation’s public health system. After a couple years of coasting then slowing down, the death toll and number of traffic accidents are speeding up again, according to statistics from the Roadway Safety Council (COSEVI).

Last year, 616 people died on the nation’s highways, the most deaths in the last five years. This year, at the end of July, 25 more deaths had occurred compared to the same time last year.

The road security plan will attempt to reduce the number of highway deaths by 19% over the next five years, González said.

The plan was unveiled the day after an explosive collision between a cattle truck, a trailer and two other cars on the Inter-American Highway in Puntarenas claimed three lives and sent three others to the hospital with serious injuries.

“Accidents like that could be avoided if we were an educated country, but there’s so much irresponsibility and disrespect of the law,” said Traffic Police Director Huanelge Gutiérrez. “We have to develop the kind of culture developed countries have so people respect traffic laws.”

To that end, González and Education Minister Leonardo Garnier announced plans to incorporate traffic safety into education. The two ministers, and President Arias, handed out traffic safety instructional booklets to some 35 schoolchildren in attendance at the meeting.

“We can’t keep losing kids in traffic accidents that are totally avoidable,” Garnier said. According to COSEVI, the age group that represents the most deaths from traffic accidents each year is 15-24. According to the United Nation’s Children’s Fund (UNICEF), traffic accidents are also a leading cause of death for those ages 13-17.

A rising number of traffic accidents – more than 57,000 in 2005, up nearly 10% from 2004 – has proven not only costly for the nation’s youth, but has also collided head on with the country’s socialized health-care, costing the Social Security System (CCSS) millions.

The daily La Nación recently reported that care for people injured in traffic accidents costs the Social Security System nearly $7 million a year.

Every hour three people arrive at emergency rooms around the country as a result of car accidents, while another two are attended to outside of the hospitals. Last year, 3,512 people suffered serious injuries from accidents, mostly between the ages of 24 and 40, La Nación reported.

Meanwhile, on any given day, approximately 62 people are admitted to hospitals as a result of injuries sustained on Costa Rica’s roads and highways.

  Improvements Needed

Speaking at Casa Presidencial Tuesday, Arias reminded his audience that “after Einstein, everything is relative.”

He said though Costa Rica’s highway fatalities are on the rise, the country fares well relative to other Latin American countries.

“We have to improve, but we’re not that bad,” he said.

To improve, the administration will propose a new transit law that will request 300 more Traffic Police – increasing the agency’s human resources by nearly half. The proposal will also request increased patrols to target drunk driving, as well as increased fines for driving under the influence, speeding and running traffic lights, and a slew of infrastructure improvements.

González said road security reform will require targeting not only drivers, but pedestrians as well. COSEVI reports that more pedestrians are fatal victims than those in vehicles.

Traffic safety education in schools will be aimed at pedestrians, and infrastructure improvements will include not only filling potholes, painting roads and replacing damaged equipment, but erecting pedestrian bridges and crosswalks as well, according to González.

This month, MOPT started painting eight of the capital’s main roads and the highway from San José to the Caribbean port city of Limón. During the next few months, lane dividers will be painted on other roads around the country.

“This is an important project to avoid drivers’ confusion and prevent accidents,” said MOPT spokeswoman Carolina Arrieta.

The Road Safety Plan would also create a body that would investigate reports of corruption within the Transit Police. So far this year, MOPT reported it has received 300 complaints against the Traffic Police, a body of 700. The leading causes for complaints are abuse of authority and bribery, according to the ministry.

Though González said the administration hopes the plan will begin by 2007, the Executive Branch has yet to present the Transit Law reform proposal to the Legislative Assembly. The proposal will have to find its way through bottlenecked legislative traffic in an already backed-up assembly agenda. González said the plan would be presented to the assembly in September.

The legislative Government and Administration Commission that looks at public security and transportation proposals is already debating other legislation, not part of the new plan, that would increase requirements for those seeking a driver’s license and spell out tougher punishments for reckless driving, commission Patricia Quirós told The Tico Times.

Cities Holding Out

Plans to improve the nation’s treacherous roads have also run into a speed bump at the local level. A Comptroller’s Office report released this week shows that cities have been sitting on more than $16 million in funds that the Finance Ministry has given them for road improvements.

According to the report, 87% of the country’s municipalities have yet to spend nearly a fourth of the funds they reaped between 2002 and 2005 from the gas meant to help improve the nation’s 24,700 kilometers of roads.

Eugenio Nájera, mayor of the Southern Zone Municipality of Osa, Puntarenas, told La Nación the municipality plans to spend nearly $900,000 it has earmarked for road improvements by the end of this year.

Private shark fin docks ruled illegal, group says

Autor: Writer

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

The Sala IV constitutional court has ordered the immediate closing of private docks where shark fishermen have been unloading their catch for years.

The court’s decision was reported by the Programa Restauración de Tortugas Marinas, which filed a case in 2004.

The court said that the customs law requires that all foreign flag vessels at first discharge their cargo at public docks. The court said this was to protect the public interest.

The court further said that three public agencies had abdicated their constitutional duties, permitted shark species to be put in grave danger through irrational exploitation. The agencies are the Instituto Costarricense de Pesca y Acuacultura, the Departamento de Aduanas and the Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transporte, said the environmental organization.

Although not a party to the action, the Ministerio de Ambiente y Energía, the environmental ministry, also was ordered to guarantee the compliance with the law on the private docks.

The Programa Restauración de Tortugas Marinas said that the court resolved the case in February but that the agencies chose to ignore the decision until they were notified formally, which took place this month.

Private docks in Puntarenas have been used since 1998 for shark fishermen to off-load the fins they catch. There have been repeated protests from the environmental community. But the situation is tied up with Costa Rica’s relationship with Asian governments. Shark fin soup is much in demand in Asia, and Costa Rica has accepted many grants from Asian countries, principally Taiwan.

The Programa Restauración de Tortugas Marinas said that the public agencies also reply that there are no public facilities suitable for the unloading of sharks and shark fins.

But the environmental organization said that a perfect facility exists in Golfito.