The 38 congressional deputies known to be in favor of ratification of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the United States voted yesterday to put three bills on the so-called fast track procedure that could speed a vote. The new procedure was inaugurated last year to avoid a few congressmen blocking passage of time-sensitive bills for months and even years.

The three bills are needed if CAFTA is to be implemented and are part of a number of measures necessary to bring Costa Rican law into allignment with the trade treaty.

But the controversy waxes fierce over the pact and opponents of CAFTA predicted that the successful vote would be a “Pyrrhic victory.” Certainly the fast track has appeared far from just that, due to court challenges brought by opponents such as the Citizen Action Party. In fact, a recent Arcadio editorial cartoon in the English-language weekly The Tico Times depicted the fast track as a rabbit jockey–but one mounted on a tortoise.

The three bills strengthen trademark and author’s protections as well as one having to do with international trade in plants.

Regular congressional procedures can be cumbersome. The author’s works protection measure, for example, has been on the congressional floor agenda since December. During the last term, a sweeping tax reform package was stalled for nearly three years before approval was voted–only to have the law nullified by the courts on procedural grounds.

Under the new rules, the bills will go to committees which must rule on them within a month. But even if the new system works more smoothly than it has so far, congress still has a long haul ahead: the Ministry of Foreign Trade says that these three are only part of the dozen bills that must be passed if CAFTA is to be implemented.