Costa Rica wants extension for DR-CAFTA legislation

Costa Rica wants extension for DR-CAFTA legislation With only a handful of the 11 bills needed to implement the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement passed through the Costa Rican Assembly, President Oscar Arias is predicting his country will need an extension on the Feb. 29 deadline for implementation legislation.
   Although voters endorsed Costa Rican participation in DR-CAFTA in an October referendum election, the trade agreement remains controversial in Costa Rica and is fought at every step by opponents.
   The Citizen Action Party, known as PAC, is challenging implementing legislation in the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court, which is not expected to rule until mid-February.
   The Supreme Elections Tribunal has also approved a proposal from three environmental groups to begin collecting signatures in a bid to force a new referendum election.
   Arias says lawmakers will likely still be working on DR-CAFTA legislation during the second half of February, and will have to seek an extension from the other participating nations. Costa Rica is the only one of the six countries covered in the agreement that has not approved all the implementing legislation needed to put preferences into effect.
   “It is obvious that we aren’t going to be able to go ahead, and that in the month of February we will have to ask for an extension,” Arias said, according to an Associated Press report.
   In addition to Costa Rica, the agreement covers the United States, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua.