Central American Free Trade Agreement

A free-trade pact once thought to be slam-dunk is now up for grabs in Costa Rica, where President Oscar Arias on Friday announced that his government would hold a national referendum on the controversial measure. Arias, a supporter of the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement, known as DR-CAFTA, called the pending vote "a triumph" for democratic procedure that would let Costa Ricans determine whether to participate in the pact, to which the U.S. is a party.

With just over two weeks to go before Costa Ricans head to the polls to vote on a free-trade agreement with the United States and six other countries, Alfredo Volio should be a happy man. As head of the "yes" campaign championing the pact, known as CAFTA, he has watched public support climb in recent months.

san jose, costa rica -- About 100,000 Costa Ricans, some dressed as skeletons and holding banners, protested Sunday against a U.S. trade pact they said would flood the country with cheap farm goods and cause big job losses. Chanting "No to the free-trade pact!" and "Costa Rica is not for sale!" protesters including farmers and housewives filled one of San Jose's main boulevards to demonstrate against the Central American Free Trade Agreement with the United States.

The Bush administration welcomed Costa Rica's narrow approval of a free-trade agreement with the U.S. after a national debate that split the tiny Central American democracy. Costa Rican voters backed the U.S.-Central American Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA, by the slim ratio of 51.58% in favor to 48.42% against -- in an echo of the bitter debate in the U.S. Congress over CAFTA two years ago.

Growing anti-trade sentiment in several Central American countries has held up a trade agreement with the United States that had been slated to launch Jan. 1. Under the Central American Free Trade Agreement, the U.S. agreed to open its markets further to key Central American products, such as sugar and apparel and textiles, while those countries promised to lower barriers to U.S. farm goods, high-tech products and services.

The top two candidates in Costa Rica's presidential election were deadlocked Monday in a race some say has become a referendum on a controversial free trade pact with the United States. Sunday's contest was supposed to have been a coronation for former President Oscar Arias, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who vowed to seek quick approval for the trade agreement with the U.S. and other Central American countries.

A new Guatemalan drug regulation has become the latest complication in the Bush administration's effort to enact a proposed Central American free-trade pact. Guatemala must amend the regulation or risk endangering congressional approval of the pact, U.S. officials said Friday. The new regulation -- which pits Guatemalan producers of low-cost, generic drugs against U.S. pharmaceutical giants -- is not expected to derail the trade agreement.

Struggling Southern textile producers have for decades been fierce advocates for protection from cheap imports. But faced with sharply rising imports from China, a growing number of those firms are throwing their support behind a trade pact with Central America that would reduce trade barriers.

Carmina Garcia rises before the sun each morning, taking pleasure in the first yellow rays of dawn. But it's the pink and white tablets that keep her going. Found to be HIV-positive shortly before her husband died of AIDS-related complications last fall, an ailing Garcia was convinced of her own death sentence. But generic drugs have kept the virus in check and restored 60 lost pounds to her frame.

Two major groups representing the textile industry, which is highly sensitive to foreign competition, came out on opposing sides in the debate over a free-trade agreement with six Central American and Caribbean countries. The National Council of Textile Organizations announced its support for the Central American Free Trade Agreement, a decision that was hailed by the Bush administration.