U.S.-Central America trade pact ?high priority?

U.S.-Central America trade pact ôhigh priorityö    Creation of the U.S.-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) is a 'high priority' of the Bush administration, a Secretary of State spokesman said last week.
   CAFTA 'is one of the biggest items on the hemispheric agenda,' said Robert Noriega, assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere affairs, to the Institute of the Americas Sept. 16.
   The seventh round of CAFTA talks, involving the five Central America nations Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, are under way in Nicaragua and the final round is expected to take place in Central America in December.
   Noriega said the Bush administration anticipates negotiating the accession of the Dominican Republic to CAFTA by early 2004 and to submit the complete agreement for congressional approval by mid-2004.
   The agreement is expected to reflect the latest developments in international trade law, Noriega said, adding the recently concluded U.S. trade agreements with Chile and Singapore are models for CAFTA.
   'We recognize that the Central American countries and the Dominican Republic need assistance ' far more than do Singapore and Chile ' to fulfill their new obligations under CAFTA and to fully exploit the opportunities opened up by the agreement,' Noriega said.
   The agreement will yield economic and political benefits not just for the Central America region, but for the entire Western Hemisphere, Noriega told the Institute of the Americas.