Costa Rica Joins CAFTA Talks

WASHINGTON - Jan 30/04 - SNS -- Costa Rica's decision to get involved in the U.S.-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), as well as the launching of negotiations to bring the Dominican Republic into the accord, were welcomed by the National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA) and the North American Export Grain Association (NAEGA).

Costa Rica is the fifth country to reach agreement with the United States to join CAFTA. In so doing, it joined El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, which had reached agreement on the accord on Dec. 17.

Under CAFTA, more than half of current U.S. agricultural exports to Central America will become duty-free immediately, including soybeans, wheat, cotton, high-quality beef cuts, processed food products and others. Tariffs on most remaining U.S. agricultural exports would be phased out within 15 years. Commodities benefiting most from CAFTA's market-access provisions are corn, dairy, pork, poultry, rice and dry beans.

The United States now begins negotiations with the Dominican Republic to grow what U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick has called the "ever-expanding circle of free trade in this hemisphere." Costa Rica accounts for approximately one-third of U.S. trade with the five CAFTA countries; adding the Dominican Republic would create the second largest U.S. export market in Latin America behind only Mexico.

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