13 September 2010 | Interviews | Resisting neoliberalism
Against Triangulation
Interview with Grace García, from COECOCeiba / Friends of the Earth Costa Rica
Download: MP3 (1.7 Mb)
Social organizations are worried about the acceleration of the negotiations for an FTA between Central American countries and giant Asian countries. One of the most paradigmatic cases is Costa Rica, where environmentalist organizations such as COECOCeiba – Friends of the Earth fear that these processes will consolidate a “trade triangulation” of powers such as China, which aims to place its products in the rest of the region and in the US.
Last week, Grace García, member of COECOCeiba, was present at the International Affairs Commission of the Legislative Assembly, to raise her concern over the ratification of the Costa Rican political commitments to sign an FTA with China.
In an interview with Real World Radio, the Costa Rican activist warned about a “wave of negotiations” to sign trade agreements promoted by President Laura Chinchilla and Foreign Trade Minister, Anabel Gonzalez. This includes negotiations with China and Singapore and the possibility of starting a dialogue with South Korea, although this hasn´t been confirmed yet.
“It is not convenient to start this kind of negotiations with such a powerful country as China, due to the existing asymmetries. Trade unions and the Food Industry Agency are also opposing this process. One of the main concerns is China´s labour and environmental legislation, which is different from that of Costa Rica”, she said.
COECOCeiba is one of the few local environmentalist organizations that have been monitoring the impacts of the FTA and that is why the organization was called to express their opinions at the International Affairs Commission of the Legislative Assembly.
Garcia also said that China and Costa Rica signed an investment protection agreement in October, 2007, and that is why the Legislative Assembly was called to discuss its ratification. “Without it the negotiation wouldn´t make sense, because this is the legal framework to negotiate an FTA”.
And she warned: “We are worried that Costa Rica is going to be used by China to triangulate its products with the US. That would have negative impacts for national producers, such as rice producers. In addition, we don´t know what´s the quality of the products coming from China, what their phytosanitary requirements are and how they are going to enter our markets”.
In environmental terms, the Chinese negotiators have shown their interest in improving their cooperation in issues like climate change, solid waste management and conservation of national parks. “It caught our attention that China wants to cooperate on these issues, when at a national level these are not aspects taken into account by them. For instance, China has not ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity”, said the member of COECOCeiba.
Costa Rican members of the House of Representatives, according to Garcia, didn´t know about the existence of an investment protection agreement with China. “It wasn´t an issue on the agenda, there were discussions about FTA negotiations but they didn´t include the investment protection agreement, which hasn´t been ratified by the Congress”, she said.
Another issue to be discussed by the governments of the region is the ratification of an Economic Association Agreement between Central America and the European Union signed in May 2010. “There isn´t enough information about what has been negotiated and the situation is complicated, with right-wing majorities in some countries and illegitimate governments such as Honduras”, she concluded.
