Groups opposed to the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA) announced yesterday that they haven’t given up their fight against the controversial pact and are planning a protest Feb. 26 to urge leaders to renegotiate it.

President Oscar Arias’ administration should “take advantage of this occasion to sit down at the table and renegotiate the several negative aspects CAFTA has for Costa Ricans,” said Albino Vargas, secretary general of the National Association of Public and Private Employees (ANEP), during a press conference yesterday.

The United States has recently renegotiated trade pacts with South American countries, Vargas argued, so reworking parts of CAFTA should also be considered a possibility.

Foreign Trade Minister Marco Vinicio Ruiz said the United States was able to renegotiate agreements with Peru and Colombia because they had not been ratified by any country’s legislature. The situation with CAFTA is different, he said, since the U.S. legislature has approved it, and it has gone into effect in other Central American signatory countries.

At the upcoming march, CAFTA opponents plan to meet at various points downtown before converging on the Legislative Assembly.

Costa Rica is the only signatory country that has not ratified CAFTA. Discussion of the pact on the assembly floor is expected to begin next month. -ACAN-EFE

Gas prices continued to decline yesterday as the Public Services Regulatory Authority (ARESEP) approved the third price reduction so far this year, according to a statement from ARESEP.

Meanwhile, a previous approved decrease went into effect today. The price of one liter of super gas dropped from ¢488 ($0.95) to ¢475 ($0.92), while one liter of regular gas dropped from ¢460 ($0.89) to ¢447 ($0.87). Additionally, the price of one liter of diesel fuel dropped from ¢364 ($0.71) to ¢349 ($0.68), according to an ARESEP statement.

The third reduction will bring the price of super gas down to ¢453 ($0.88) per liter, regular gas to ¢425 ($0.83) per liter and diesel to ¢335 ($0.65) per liter, the statement said. These prices will go into effect as soon as they are published in the official government daily La Gaceta. ARESEP planned to send the approval to the National Printer today.

Falling gas prices are reflective of trends on international markets, the statement said. Unseasonably warm temperatures in some parts of the United States have decreased the demand for fuels, causing prices to drop.

-Tico Times

The U.S. hotel chain Hilton has signed an agreement to take over the administration of two beach hotels on the Pacific coast this year, according to a statement from the company.

As of December, Hilton will administer Fiesta Resort, in the central Pacific town of Puntarenas, and Fiesta Premier Resort & Spa, in the northwestern Guanacaste province. These hotels will change their names to Doubletree by Hilton Puntarenas Resort and Hilton Papagayo Resort, respectively.

Starting up operations in Costa Rica is “a magnificent example of the commitment Hilton has made its clients to expand its offerings through contracts with hotel owners who believe in the strength of our brand name,” said Hilton vice-president of marketing Jeff Diskin, according to the statement.

During the next few months, both hotels will be remodeled to adjust to Hilton’s style.

The Hilton Papagayo Resort will have a total 202 rooms, while the all-inclusive Doubletree by Hilton will have 410 rooms. Hilton also has hotels in El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua.

Tourism is one of the main economic drivers in Costa Rica. Last year, the industry generated $1.6 billion from 1.6 million visitors.

-ACAN-EFE

By Katherine Stanley, Tico Times Staff

Legislators from the Citizen Action Party (PAC) yesterday presented a 530-page document explaining their opposition to the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA).

The bottom line: the party, which, with 17 seats in the legislature, is second only to the National Liberation Party (PLN) in congressional heft, says Costa Rica should scrap the existing agreement and negotiate a new one that better protects the country’s identity and public institutions.

Legislator Ronald Solís said CAFTA should be cast aside entirely and negotiation should begin afresh.

The United States is “always going to be interested,” he said at a press conference held at the assembly just before Solís, faction head Elizabeth Fonseca and Francisco Molina, all PAC lawmakers and members of the International Relations Commission, presented the document to the legislature’s secretariat across the hall. Its position statement will join the pro-CAFTA arguments of Liberation, the Libertarian Movement and the Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC) as the basis for discussion of the pact on the legislative floor, expected to begin later this month.

The International Relations Commission voted to send CAFTA to the assembly floor in December.

PAC’s presentation marks the last step, aside from the publication of the position statements and republication of CAFTA itself in the official government daily La Gaceta, before the full assembly can begin debating the controversial agreement. Its proponents, including President Oscar Arias, say the pact would improve Costa Rica’s access to the U.S. market and create new opportunities for the country, while PAC members and other critics say the country ceded too much – namely, the opening of its state-owned telecommunications and insurance monopolies to private competition – in the negotiation process, conducted in 2003-2004.

“This process has been incredible, because it’s been a school – we have so much knowledge now that we didn’t have when we started (negotiations),” Solís said as he argued that CAFTA should be shelved and new talks begun. “Now we’re more prepared… Today we have a culture of treaty negotiation.”

The full text of the document will be released to the press Friday.