USTR chief prepares for CAFTA talks

USTR chief prepares for CAFTA talks    U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick will spend the next three days, Oct. 1-3, in Central America pursuing the development of a free-trade bloc with Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.
   The United States and these Central American countries share a combined two-way trade in goods of $25 billion. The USTR estimates that U.S. exports to these countries in 2002 will reach $11.5 billion.
   The proposed free-trade agreement, the Central American Free Trade Agreement, is part of a general push by the United States for trade agreements.
   “The recent setback in Cancun of the global trade talks makes it all the more important that we continue pressing to open markets bilaterally with CAFTA and throughout the hemisphere with the Free Trade Area of the Americas,” Zoellick said.