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TLC vote set for Sunday
Posted by Editor | October 1, 2007 | Categories: Community Calendar, Government and Politics | 1 Comment
| October 7, 2007 |
Local residents who wanted to discuss the upcoming TLC referendum met last night at the hall of La Casa de la Cultura. As everyone knows, Costa Rica is holding a referendum this coming Sunday October 7th to decide whether the country should ratify this free trade treaty with the US and Central American nations.
Voting will occur in your local community school. Turn out is expected to be huge nationally so Puerto Viejo residents are encouraged to make their local voices count.
If you have an opinion on the TLC that you’d like to share with the community, please leave a comment here.
Comments
1 Comment so far
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I guess in general I can not see how mega-corperations taking over economies of countries all over the world is going to be a good thing.
I am from Canada and we have so-called free trade agreemnet with US and I have seen how free it is when countries like the US are dealt multiple trade rulings not in their favour. They just ignore them until the other country buckles. They refer to it as negotiating.
Now, countries like Canada, have a few cards in their hand when dealing with the the school-yard bully like control over resources that the US desperately needs. But what is a country like Costa Rica supposed to do when countries like the US don’t play fair and ignore WTO rulings that they don’t like.
One travel warning on Costa Rica put out Americans though their so-called independent media and Costa Rica will have pnemonia. Combined with restrictions on imports like bananas and coffee and it is really game over.
Now, seeing where I stand on the issue, I can not say what would happen if Costa Rica did not choose to participate. How can you be a small country in the huge free-trade zone? With no real bargaining chips, I think the reality is that you would be squashed like a fly.