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16 July, 2007
ICEM affiliates from the Latin America/Caribbean Region have adopted a statement in support of Costa Rican affiliate Sindicato de Trabajadores Petroleros Quimicos y Afines (SITRAPEQUIA), which has fought against adoption of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) by the country’s government.
If adopted, CAFTA would become the official free trade agreement between the United States and the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
CAFTA has already been approved by all those countries, except. President Oscar Arias has announced a referendum will occur in Costa Rico on the free trade agreement later this year.
According to the ICEM regional statement, which specifically cites the many current trade union rights violations in Costa Rica, adoption of CAFTA would bring it a whole range of negative symptoms and threats to society.
The statement says that such dangers will include even more workers’ rights violations. It adds that the agreement would set in motion a systematic dismantling of many of the country’s social and legal gains, and that Costa Rica stands to lose a fair degree of sovereignty if CAFTA is adopted. The free trade agreement would bypass important parts of the country’s legal system in and allow dispute resolution of violations by multinational enterprises to be heard in international courts.
Costa Rican unions fear that the agreement will result in heavy job losses, especially in agriculture and industry. For example, with the opening of unrestricted or semi-restricted trade, US food products, which enjoy heavy subsidising and technological advantages, will find access to Central American markets much easier. This will work to the detriment of local national products and the workers employed in the food and agriculture.
Also mentioned in the ICEM regional statement are public health risks. Patents held by large pharmaceutical companies may become unavailable. The statement also cites dangers to the environment, with private companies gaining more rights to commercially exploit the many natural resources of Costa Rica.
The resolution was adopted at the ICEM regional conference for Latin America/Caribbean in Salvador, Brazil, which occurred on 27-28 June. SITRAPEQUIA’s is Costa Rica’s oil and chemical trade union and its efforts to block ratification of CAFTA have strong support from the Costa Rican national trade union centre, Confederación de Trabajadores Rerum Novarum (CTRN).