Costa Rica’s National Assembly passed the first in a series of 12 bills required to make the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) law this Monday, Nov. 26.

The passing of this first law occured nearly two months after the October 7th national referendum on CAFTA in which the majority of Costa Ricans voted in favor of the measure.

While the 12 bills have sparked varying degrees of controversy, this first one, regulating the relationship between foreign companies and their representatives in Costa Rica, is one of the least controversial. However, the anti-CAFTA Citizen Action Party (PAC) did take some action to at the very least stall its passage, requesting that the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV) assess the constitutionality of the statute. After the Sala IV ruled that the law did not violate the Constitution, legislators approved the law in a 32-11 vote around 11 p.m.

An extension will have to be requested from the other nations involved in the treaty if the legislature does not approve all 12 laws by the end of February 2008. There are currently 10 other bills waiting to be passed, while the last one is still under revision. The agreement will approve free trade between Costa Rica, the United States, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras and the Dominican Republic.    

This post's rating:

Related Stories

Filed under: Costa Rica News on November 28th, 2007