Costa Rica exported 3,565 types of products to 138 different countries during 2003, including 112 new products exported for the first time.

The country began exports to five new destinations and 195 companies began exporting for the first time in 2003, according to the Foreign Trade Promotion Office (PROCOMER).

In 2003, pineapple surpassed coffee as the country’s second-largest agricultural export after bananas. Costa Rica continued to grow as one of the world’s largest per-capita exporters of agricultural goods.

PROCOMER said 1,744 Costa Rican businesses, many of which are small and medium enterprises, export to foreign markets.

FOREIGN Trade Minister Alberto Trejos described Central America’s trade ministers’ visit to WashingtonD.C. last week to lobby for the Central America Free-Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the United States as a “great success.”

While in Washington, the ministers met with U.S. trade officials, legislators and private-sector groups in an attempt to enlist their support for CAFTA, which includes Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and more recently, the Dominican Republic.

“THE purpose of this trip – the first since the end of the negotiations and the first since Dominican Republic was incorporated into CAFTA – was to meet with allies and organize a joint strategy to get the treaty approved,” Trejos told reporters on Monday.

Analysts have warned that CAFTAwill face strong opposition from labor unions, environmentalists and other protectionist groups in the United States (TT, Nov. 14, 2003).

Recent concerns over the fairness of trade, labor standards and the outsourcing of U.S. jobs overseas are likely to be the topics of heated debate during the campaign leading up to November’s presidential elections in the United States.

CENTRAL American trade ministers hope the inclusion of Dominican Republic as part of CAFTA, announced March 15, will improve the treaty’s chances of approval in the U.S. Congress.

Combined two-way trade between the United States and the six CAFTAcountries totaled $32.4 billion last year. The CAFTA block was the United States’ second-largest trading partner in Latin America, after Mexico, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

In addition to the commercial advantages the Dominican Republic’s inclusion in CAFTA could bring, there are political advantages, according to Trejos. A large population of Dominican immigrants concentrated mainly in the northeastern United States forms a large and powerful constituency, which has the power to convince influential legislators to back CAFTA, he said.

However, Central America and Dominican Republic still need to iron out the details on how CAFTA will apply between them. These issues will be discussed the week of April 12 during a short summit between the trade ministers of Central America and the Dominican Republic.

Trejos also said it would be good for Panama, which will begin to negotiate a free-trade agreement with the United States on April 26, to incorporate into CAFTA. U.S. Trade Officials have said it’s a possibility.

DURING their visit, the Central American trade ministers met with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Don Evans and Tom Shannon, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs.

The ministers also met with influential legislators from both sides of the aisle, including Democratic CAFTA supporters Rep. Jim Davis (Florida), leader of the “New Democrats Coalition,” and Adam Smith (Washington), a close political ally of Democratic Presidential Candidate Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts.

They also met with aids of Montana Senator Max Baucus, Ranking Member on the Senate Finance Committee.

The ministers met with high-ranking Republican Congressmen Rep. Robert Goodlatte (Virginia), Chairman of the Congressional Commission on Agriculture, and Majority Whip Rep. Roy Blunt (Missouri).

TREJOS and head Costa Rican CAFTA negotiator Anabel González met with private-sector groups, including the Groceries Manufacturers of America and private farm lobbies.

“The positive signs we received from all the sectors we spoke with doesn’t mean the process of getting CAFTA approved won’t be complicated,” Trejos warned.

“There’s a strong group of Congressional Representatives opposed to the treaty. The [U.S. Presidential] elections later this year doesn’t help the situation either.

“Also, most congressional representatives are facing reelection and will be busy campaigning,” he explained.

The region’s trade ministers plan to return to Washington three more times this year, Trejos said.

IN related news, three Costa Rican legislative deputies opposed to CAFTA – Humberto Arce of the Patriotic Bloc, Rodrigo Alberto Carazo of Citizen Action Party and José Miguel Corrales of National Liberation Party – say they plan to introduce “clarifications” on how to interpret several provisions in the treaty’s texts.

Although legislators are allowed only to approve or reject the treaty and can’t modify it, they are permitted, under special circumstances, to make clarifications on how specific aspects of the treaty should be interpreted.

However, according to Trejos, both sides must agree on the clarifications for them to be valid.

“Some deputies want to clarify certain parts of the treaty so it means something different than what was agreed to,” Trejos said Monday. “That’s not really a clarification, that’s a change. If they are against what the treaty says, they have the choice of voting against it.”

Deputies Rolando Laclé of the Social Christian Unity Party and Federico Malavassi of the Libertarian Movement said they fear the clarifications could jeopardize the treaty. Laclé said “enemies of the free-trade agreement” could use the clarifications as a tool.

Arce, Carazo and Corrales denied they intend to modify what Costa Rica and the United States agreed to when they concluded negotiations on Jan. 25 (TT, Jan. 30).

FOR CAFTA to go into effect, it must be signed by the Presidents of all seven countries and ratified by the legislative bodies of the United States and at least one of the other countries. Then, it will go into effect in each country where it is approved by that country’s lawmakers.

The date when the official CAFTA signing ceremony will take place has not been announced.

Under U.S. trade law, preferential trade agreements must be signed more than 90 days after negotiations conclude. Since negotiations with Dominican Republic concluded in mid-March, the earliest CAFTA could be signed is early May.

ROBERT Schaberl’s artwork is intangible.

At least that’s the message the contemporary Austrian artist is trying to make with his new show “Central Forms,” exhibiting April 14 at the Jacob Karpio Gallery.

Playing with lighting, color, surfaces, perspective and the human eye, Schaberl’s work tries to illustrate the idea that a work of art can never viewed the same way twice.

VIEWERS take in aspects of the pieces while missing other details that they may notice on a second look. Based on this idea, each time one observes the piece, a different painting is seen.

“I view my paintings as an object in space, as an object without a definitive chromatic definition,” Schaberl said. “A painting is more than a painting because, depending on the angle from which one is viewing it, it seems like a different work endowed with the ability to change.”

THE exhibit marks the first time Schaberl shows his work in Costa Rica. The show will run through the end of May.

The gallery is at Ave. 1, 1352 Cuesta de Núñez in San José and is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call 257-7963.

FIRST place resulted in a fourway tie at the Second Annual Costa Rica Classic International Billfish Tournament out of Quepos from March 19 to March 21. The tie-breaker? The team that boated its last fish the earliest on the final day of the competition.

The special honors went to Florida fishermen Dominick Pagano, Bill Olsen and Steve Blount, with skipper Ezequiel Amaya on a boat out of Aguila de Osa.

The winning team scored 1,300 points with two marlin at 500 points each and three sailfish at 100 points each, according to Tico Travel president Rob Hodel, who helped organize the event.

The runner-up teams are: From Florida, Denny Derringer and Bobby Oden with eight sails and one marlin on the Bob Cat; from Lincoln, Neb., Tom Hansen, Tim Thunn, Larry Smith and Rob Wilsey with eight sails and one marlin; from Florida, Stephanie Lee, Joe Zeno, Mike O’Connor, Mike Amelunk and Fred Hamilton with 13 sailfish.

QUESTION of the week: How did a team from Nebraska enter a billfish tournament? I spent many summers in Beemer, Neb. and all we caught on cane poles were catfish on the ElkHornRiver.

The Quepos-based tournament was sponsored by the Boomer Esiason Foundation (BEF) to heighten awareness, education and funding efforts of cystic fibrosis research. Participants included National Football League players and college football stars Dave Rimington and Mark Cooper.

Public Relations Coordinator Pete Johnson, from Johnson Communications Inc., said he fished the Gandy Dancer with Rimington the week prior to the competition and released 12 sails in the same area.

TICO Times reader Joe Riley fished the Gamefisher, with skipper Bill Gannon out of Playa Carrillo and said he had eight releases for 10 sails up, nailed a blue marlin and on the last bite of the day had an estimated 230-pound yellowfin tuna almost within reach of the gaff when the leader parted.

The next major fishing tournament in Costa Rica is the Michigan Boys annual event out of Playa Flamingo April 29 through May 2. Wetass II skipper Sonny Kocsis is coordinating the long-running private event which has 160 participants scheduled, all from Michigan.

“El Gato Negro” struck again last week! I went to Barra Colorado for two days of fishing with retired U.S. Army Col. Dick Nidever, an old friend from our high school days who is staying with us for a few weeks. I wish I could have shown him some action. In two days on the water out of the Rio Colorado Lodge we caught one jack crevalle, but didn’t see a tarpon or snook. The bite reportedly turned back on once I left and reports from there say there are two to four tarpon daily per boat, fishing the same area.

WE stopped briefly at Casamar Lodge coming back from Banana Lagoon and were surprised to see the improvements made under the new ownership after the death of lodge founder Billy Barnes. The restaurant, lounge, bar and docks have been completely remodeled and they have added a few new boats, more than 20 feet.

Almost three months after a protest sparked a debate about the legality of beach camping, the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT) has announced police will help it block campers from pitching their tents on the public zone of Playa Panamá, in the northwestern province of Guanacaste.

Panamá beach, across the bay from the PapagayoPeninsula, has been a longtime favorite location of camping vacationers, particularly during Semana Santa (Easter Week), when Ticos from throughout the country flock to the beaches.

“They’re closing traditional access points that people have used for years,” said Gadi Amit, member of the Costa Rican Federation for the Conservation of the Environment (FECON). Indeed, people have been camping at Playa Panamá for decades.

A statement from FECON called the operation “against all rationality, against history, against the democratic system of the public ownership of the maritime zone and against the healthy leisure time and coexistence of the population.”

Amit told The Tico Times this week that the ICT already closed one road leading to Playa Panamá by obstructing it with huge boulders, and officials are constructing a guard post on another access road he claims will eventually serve to filter visitors. “It’s a form of privatization,” he said.

FECON members say ICT officials made the announcement of their intention to the community around the beach at a special meeting of the Municipality of Carrillo – where Playa Panamá is located –after local citizens voiced their concern about the blocked access.

It was a protest against blocking access to beaches – which are all public under Costa Rican law – that sparked the camping debate earlier this year.

During that protest, about 20 FECON members traveled by boat to Playa Blanca, in front of the newly constructed Four Seasons hotel on the Papagayo Peninsula, to protest restricted access to the beach, which is now accessible to non-hotel guests only via a 700-meter walkway.

When they tried to pitch their tents on the beach, visitors were prevented by a contingent of police officers, present at the request of ICT officials. The protestors sat at the beach all night (TT, Jan. 23).

AS a result of that incident, members of FECON and the Fraternal Association of Guanacaste filed an injunction Feb. 6 against the ICT and the Public Security Ministry, claiming police officers harassed them. The injunction, filed before the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV), also claims using officers to prevent citizens from camping is a “misappropriation of resources.”

The high court has not yet ruled on the case, and The Tico Times could find no definitive answer as to whether camping on Costa Rican beaches is legal or not.

Representatives of the Government Attorney’s Office would not comment on the matter this week, saying they cannot opine on concrete cases because that is the role of the court.

An official ICT response to the Sala IV injunction, dated Feb. 16, says the only thing the custom of beach camping has brought is “chaos and widespread contamination of the beach, as much material as visual.”

PART of the ICT plan, according to the document, is to work with police to maintain a constant presence at the beach to prevent campers from pitching tents.

The signatures of Tourism Minister Rodrigo Castro and Papagayo Project Director Javier Bolaños are at the end of the document.

Bolaños called the operation one of “education.”

ICT advisor Álvaro Villalobos told The Tico Times this week that the operation is as much to prevent citizens from bringing vehicles onto the beach, as it is to keep campers off. He said vehicles speeding up and down the beach, especially four-byfours, create a situation too dangerous to be allowed.

Villalobos also said one of ICT’s main goals is environmental protection.

“WHAT they leave is an enormous dump,” he said. “They’re not interested in protecting their resources.”

Villalobos pointed out that a private company called Maná del Pacífico obtained an ICT concession and opened a campground earlier this year in Playa Panamá.

The private campground, which has room for about 200 people, offers services such as restrooms, changing rooms, a picnic area, grills and showers, for ¢1,000 ($2.34) per person per night. At press time, room remained for 50 people for the upcoming holiday week.

ICT has defended its stance that camping on the beach is illegal based on several articles of the Maritime Zone Law – the same articles FECON members point to when they argue its legality.

Article 10 of the law states “those who use in the maritime zone temporary or mobile installations, such as tents for camping or trailers, shall do so in the designated zones, when they exist; in all cases they are obligated to observe the norms established by health authorities, remaining subject to the sanctions considered in the General Health Law.”

The words in that article most hotly contested by both parties seem to be “when they exist,” especially since until this year, there were no designated camping areas in the area.

REPRESENTATIVES of the PapagayoPeninsula tourism development project used that article to defend their use of police to prevent FECON members from camping on Playa Blanca in January.

They argued that camping at Blanca was illegal since other camping zones existed within the boundaries of the project, and pointed to Playa Panamá as the place to camp.

FECON members, however, argue that the law applies to individual beaches only, so if there aren’t designated camping zones on each beach, it is legal to camp anywhere on the beach.

Project director Bolaños also pointed to Article 9 of the maritime law in his claim that camping is illegal on any beach. The article says that while using the beach, citizens must “guarantee at all times access to the zone and free transit in it for all people.”

Bolaños said in January that placing a tent on the beach would “interrupt the passage” of other citizens – something beachcamping defenders called ironic in light of the blocked access to those beaches.

LAND-based drug trafficking through Costa Rica is decreasing, according to police, but a disturbing new trend is following that decline – more and more drug shipments are being destined for sale in Costa Rica rather than just transportation through it.

Police say one telling aspect of Costa Rica’s new role as a destination is that drug vendors here used to be almost solely locals, but in the last year authorities have apprehended more Colombians and other foreigners distributing drugs to the local market.

“That’s a major trend and evolution of this subject. What we used to see is Colombians doing business through Costa Rica, but not doing, exactly, the drug dealing,” said Paul Chaves, advisor to the Public Security Ministry and the Drug Control Police (PCD).

He said the change makes combating trafficking here a “different, different situation.”

THE trend also is worrisome, he added, because it could raise suspicions about Colombian immigrants and affect innocent Colombians coming to Costa Rica to flee the widespread violence in that country.

“Most of the Colombians here are honest people,” Chaves said. “But there is also a threat of Colombians with bad records – very few of course, but these very few will develop problems in Costa Rica.”

Drug Control Police agents on Feb. 19 arrested two Colombians and a Honduran they believe were leaders of a major drug distribution ring here, according to officials from the Security Ministry. Police said the suspects had two kilograms of cocaine and were attempting to close a sale in Hatillo, a southeast San José neighborhood (TT Daily Page, Feb. 20).

Other foreigners have entered the market as well. Chaves said dealers from Italy, the Netherlands and other European countries have set up small operations in beach towns and tourist hotspots throughout the country.

ALONG with the distributors, the types of drugs being sold in Costa Rica have changed. Chaves said the drug MDMA (methylenedioxymethamphetamine), commonly known as Ecstasy, has dramatically increased in popularity here recently.

According to a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) report, Europe is the world’s leading producer of ecstasy, and can make tablets for as little as U.S. 25-50¢ each.

Cocaine trafficking also remains a problem in Costa Rica, according to police. Shipments of cocaine – as much as one metric ton at a time – used to move through Costa Rica via semi trucks from Panama or one of Costa Rica’s major ports, such as Limón on the Caribbean coast, according to a DEA intelligence report.

But a series of large busts in 1998 and 1999 caused traffickers to begin using smaller, less-conspicuous vehicles for smaller shipments.

For example, in early January police in the southern town of Coto Brus seized 107 kilograms of cocaine hidden in the wooden double bed of a small Datsun pickup truck (TT, Jan. 9).

LARGER trucks remain a major method of drug transport, however. Chaves said the Public Security Ministry has established a solid link between trucks traveling between Guatemala and Panama and drug trafficking operations.

Police last week seized some 550 kilograms of cocaine in two separate busts at the Peñas Blancas border station, on the northern border with Nicaragua, according to Public Security Ministry officials. The busts involved three vehicles, all Guate-malan trucks.

Even when no drugs are found, Chaves said many Guatemalan trucks are suspicious because they travel empty both ways, or “the value of the cargo is not rational.”

Officials say sometime this year a new vehicle inspection center will open at the Peñas Blancas border station, creating a nearly impassable “strangulation point.”

The center, funded by the United States, will have the ability to check every vehicle coming through the station for drugs, and should serve as a powerful deterrent to any land-based operations, Chaves said.

That, coupled with additional maritime counter-drug assets acquired in the Joint Patrol Agreement signed with the United States in 1998, will help Costa Rica act as a shield to block shipments of drugs from Colombia headed up the Central American-Mexican corridor toward the United States, he added.

THE most recent study of the Costa Rican Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Institute (IAFA), which examines drug consumption from 1995 to 2000, shows a significant increase in the consumption of cocaine and marijuana among Costa Ricans. (The statistics, however, are not current enough to show how changes in trafficking trends may have affected consumption levels here.)

The annual incidence of cocaine usage more than doubled between 1995 and 2000, from .7 consumers per 1,000 persons to about two consumers per 1,000 persons. Most of those users only experimented with the drug, according to the study.

Only around 2% of the population here has used cocaine at least once in their lifetime, according to the IAFA study. In the United States, about 12% of the population has used the drug in their lifetime.

Crack cocaine use did not experience a similar increase during the same period, remaining at about 1 consumer per 1,000 persons.

MARIJUANA consumption levels increased significantly during that period.

The annual incidence of marijuana use grew from 1.06 consumers per 1000 persons in 1995 to 8.5 consumers per 1000 in the year 2000, the study showed.

The average age Costa Ricans start to smoke pot also dropped during that five-year period, from 18.5 years to 17.7.

Most marijuana consumed in Costa Rica is produced internally and has a lower THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol – the active chemical) content than marijuana in many other countries, and so is generally not trafficked out of the country, according to Costa Rican police and DEA reports.

The IAFA study did not include Ecstasy or the hallucinogenic drug LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide).

ALTHOUGH genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have crossed Costa Rican borders growing on nearly 600 hectares in several areas and lining grocery store shelves around the country discussion of the highly polemical technology is barely budding.

Both opponents and supporters of the science are doing their best to cultivate dialogue about the international issue on Costa Rican soil as attempts to regulate the industry unfold.

GMOs, also called transgenic organisms, are plants and animals that have been genetically altered to possess certain traits, such as disease resistance.

The Agriculture Ministry is 10 months into an 18-month project to create guidelines on how the country will approach the subject.

OPPONENTS of the technology charge they have only recently been invited into the official discussion.

They claim the Agriculture Ministry s project entitled Development of a National Framework in Biosecurity for Costa Rica has relied excessively on the advice of pro-GMO specialists.

Those concerned about the impact of GMOs say the general public needs to be invited to the table.

They have not made this a national discussion, said Isaac Rojas, biodiversity coordinator for Friends of the Earth Costa Rica. It is not possible that specialists alone, whose version is favorable, can come to define the framework. We could all suffer the negative impact to our health, to our food, to our environment. It touches all the people in this country.

PROJECT coordinator Alex May contends he and the project s commission have included the input of many different groups.

In addition to the Public Health Ministry, the Environment Ministry and the National Academy of Sciences, May says consumer groups such as the National Federation of Consumer and User Associations (FENASCO), social organizations such as Mesa Nacional Campesina and environmental groups have been invited to participate.

May and Rojas agree that who is involved is important because opinions on the cultivation, consumption and labeling of GMOs vary widely.

FROM tomatoes that can resist frost with the addition of a gene from salmon, to corn that makes its own pesticide, the practice and potential of genetically altering plants and animals can have remarkable results, proponents say.

The science has been used to create crops that can grow in poor soil, resist damage from insects and worms, and flourish despite weeds.

These advancements lead to greater production levels and higher crop yields, which could be a valuable contribution in solving the problem of the world s food supply, according to a report by Ana Sittenfield and Ana Mercedes Espinoza of the University of Costa Rica.

The amount production levels have increased is incredible in the cultivation of corn and other crops in other regions of the world, May said.

THE potential for medicines could also be a great benefit, May added. For example, insulin. One hundred percent of its production is transgenic.

In addition, a certain type of genetically engineered cotton uses four times less pesticide than the regular type, according to Monsanto Company, the leading biotechnology firm in the field.

This can have benefits not only for the environment, but also for the people who handle and spray such chemicals, proponents say.

GMO opponents, on the other hand, say replacing pesticides with another damaging technology is no benefit.

One of the primary concerns is that transgenic crops cannot be contained. GMO opponents worry pollen from such crops could pass from one farm to another, mix with unmodified plants and eventually reduce the existence of natural plant strains.

Furthermore, because crops that are genetically modified to resist pests are always emitting their inbred pesticides as opposed to periodically applied pesticides there is also concern that more pesticide-resistant insects and worms could emerge.

Also of concern are the potential effects of GMOs on human health, particularly since products containing them are not labeled in Costa Rica, Rojas said.

Genetically modified foods have genes that have never been consumed, which could have implications on known and unknown allergies, Rojas said.

THE long-term effects transgenic crops could have on the insects, birds and mammals that consume them are also unknown, opponents point out.

Some people, particularly in Europe, have resisted GMOs on general principle, labeling them “frankenfoods.”

The European Union imposed a moratorium on new genetically modified foods in 1998. However, last year the European Parliament began discussing ending the ban, as long as labeling regulations are imposed, according to CNN.

“You can make the best product in the world, but if consumers don’t want to eat it, what is the point?” asked Jamie García, a professor in agriculture and the environment at Universidad Estatal a Distancia (UNED).

WHAT both sides can agree on is that there has not been enough discussion of the topic in Costa Rica.

While in other countries the issue has burned so hot laboratories have been set on fire by groups such as the Earth Liberation Front, in Costa Rica awareness of the issue is minimal, May and García said.

García held a forum last week at the UNED campus in San José to discuss the topic and show people “both sides of the issue, which they need to know,” he said.

“It is still a new technology for developing countries, and like all new inventions, the knowledge is poor,” agreed May.

“ONE of the groups we have invited to participate in our meetings is the Legislative Assembly,” May added. “We want them to know and understand what the situation of the country is, what the deficiencies are so they don’t make commitments they can’t complete.”

Two bills have been submitted to the Legislative Assembly regarding GMOs, according to May. One, introduced by Joyce Zürcher from the National Liberation Party, requires the labeling of food products that contain GMOs (TT, Nov. 14, 2003).

The Ministry of Public Health did not respond to requests from The Tico Times by press time for a comment on the use and labeling of GMOs in Costa Rica.

ACCORDING to the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce, the ministry’s Director of Technical Regulation is waiting for a resolution from the international Codex Alimentarius Commission before making a decision on the labeling of products that contain GMOs.

This commission was created in 1963 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization to develop international food standards and guidelines, particularly regarding fair trade.

More than 150 countries are members of the commission, and each is allowed one vote when present for topic discussions, according to the Economy Ministry, which operates the local Codex office.

The commission will meet next month to discuss labeling of foods containing genetic engineering, according to the agenda on its Web site.

THE second bill before the Legislative Assembly calls for the ratification of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety.

The Cartegena Protocol regulates the movement of living genetically modified organisms across international borders.

The treaty aims for greater transparency in GMOs by obliging countries using living modified organisms as food, feed or processing to inform the world community via the Biosafety Clearinghouse before the products can be exported.

The protocol has been ratified by 90 countries and went into effect Sept. 11, 2003.

The ultimate goal of Costa Rica’s project to develop a national framework in biosecurity – funded by the U.N. Environmental Programme and Global Environment Facility – is to create mechanisms the country can use to adhere to the Cartegena Protocol, May said.

LITTLE regulation of GMOs presently exists in Costa Rica.

At total of 583.62 hectares in the country are planted with GMOs for the production of seeds that are exported to the United States, according to May. Crops include cotton, soy, bananas and corn. This is the only cultivation of GMOs in the country, according to May.

“There have been no requests for the commercial growing of genetically modified corn or zapallo (a type of squash) or anything for national consumption,” he said.

However, the Agriculture Ministry, which must approve all commercial crops, has received requests to grow transgenic crops for consumption by animals, according to May. These are pending, he said.

NO limitations exist on GMOs in products imported from countries such as the United States, Canada and Argentina, where cultivation of genetically modified crops is common and labeling is not required.

The Central America Free-Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the United States, which Costa Rica finished negotiating in January (TT, Jan. 30) also could affect the regulation of GMOs in Costa Rica, according to Eva Carazo of the Biodiversity Network.

The treaty must be approved by the U.S. Congress and the Legislative Assembly for it to go into effect in Costa Rica. Under Costa Rican law, international treaties ratified by the Legislative Assembly take precedence over national laws.

If the free-trade pact is approved, it will be more difficult to regulate GMOs, Carazo warned.

For example, a ban on GMOs, or even labeling requirements, could be considered a technical barrier to trade and disputed through CAFTA’s dispute-settlement mechanism, according to Carazo.