Costa Rica’s ‘Council Of Notables’ Begins Deliberations On CAFTA

by Leroy Baker, Tax-News.com, New York

27 July 2005

Costa Rica's so-called 'council of notables', a group of five influential individuals charged with analyzing the potential benefits and drawbacks of the country's participation in the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), has been sworn in by President Abel Pacheco.

The five members of the council have been given 60 days in which to draft a report on the text of the agreement, which stretches to more than 2,000 pages, and to decide whether CAFTA will contribute to Costa Rica's development. The report, which will be non-binding, will be submitted to President Pacheco, who has stated that he will attach it to the trade agreement when it is sent to the Legislative Assembly.

Chosen for their supposed detachment, and therefore independence, from the political process, the members sitting on the council include: Franklin Chang, Costa Rican-US astronaut; Rodrigo Gamez, president of the private National Biodiversity Institute (INBio); Alvar Antillon, expert in international treaties; and Guido Vallalta, a Catholic priest from the Archdiocese of San Jose.

“The opinion of this group will carry much weight for me,” stated the president prior to the council's first meeting.

However, Pacheco has insisted that he will only send the CAFTA agreement to the Legislative Assembly once the country's long-delayed tax reform bill has been approved and he is satisfied that the free trade deal will be beneficial to the country as a whole.

The tax plan aims to raise an additional $500 million in revenues in order to plug the government's budget gap and service growing levels of debt.

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