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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Efforts to ratify the free trade treaty with the United States suffered a jolt Thursday when deputies of the former government party expressed uncertainty about their support of the treaty.

The deputies are members of the Partido Unidad Social Cristiana, the party of former president Abel Pacheco. There are five of them who managed to secure legislative positions as their party took a trouncing in the Feb. 5 national elections.

Ana Helena Chacón Echeverría, the leader of the group, told  Marco Vinicio Ruiz, minister of Comercio Exterior, that the party is not married to approval of the treaty, according to a report from the Asamblea Legislativa.

Approval of the treaty is a legislative goal of the Partido Liberación Nacional of President Óscar Arias Sánchez. His minister is meeting with various political factions to gain their support.

Support from the Unidad deputies was considered a given in that the Pacheco administration negotiated the document. Ms. Chacón was a vice minister in that administration.

However, Ms. Chacón said that her party’s support of the treaty was conditioned on a development agenda that permits the country to move ahead. She said she was speaking about a legislative agenda that fights poverty and provides increase in educational spending.

“We are here for you to convince us of the necessity of the TLC . . . At this moment I am not convinced,” she said, referring to the treaty by its Spanish initials.

Liberación has 25 deputies in the current assembly. Although proponents of the treaty say that the document needs but a majority of the 57 deputies, opponents will certainly carry any vote of approval less than 38 votes to the Sala IV constitutional court. There is a strong legal case that a two-third vote is necessary, based on constitutional requirements. To get that number, Liberación needs every Unidad vote because the Partido Acción Ciudadana of Ottón Solís opposes the measure. That faction has 17 lawmakers.

Liberación has secured the backing of the Libertarian Movement and its six deputies. To get 38 votes, treaty proponents need all of Liberacion’s votes, all of Unidad and all of the Libertarians, plus votes from two of the four deputies in the legislature representing minor parties.

Meanwhile, Thursday, Libertarians were talking with liberal members of the European Parliament who were urging approval of the U.S. free trade treaty. Europeans want a treaty, too, with Central America and Costa Rica.

At the west side of town Luis Alberto Moreno, president of the Interamerican Development Bank, met with President Arias and later told newspeople that the Central American countries that have ratified the treaty already are seeing an increase in external investment.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 26th, 2006 at 3:23 pm and is filed under Business and Economy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.