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A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page |
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SSan José, Costa Rica, Friday,
May 15, 2015,
Vol.
15, No. 95
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More opposition to
genetic modifications
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
There is a new wave of opposition building against a request by Dow AgroSciences to experiment with genetically modified crops here. The permission is being sought from the Comisión Técnica Nacional de Bioseguridad. An environmental organization issued a statement against the proposal although it admitted that the details were unknown. Thursday so did members of the Partido Acción Ciudadana. Both statements noted that the Sala IV constitutional court has declared parts of the way permission are granted to be unconstitutional. That is why approval of a Monsanto Corp. project still is in limbo. Javier Cambronero Arguedas, one of the lawmakers, said that he wants to keep genetically modified crops out of Costa Rica even though the legislature earlier this year declined to pass a moratorium bill. He said that there was a risk and threat of crossing native species with genetically modified plants. He said experiments should only be done in confined areas. So far no one has said that he or she has determined the genome of traditional species of corn and other plants to find out exactly what are natives. In addition nearly all the imported snack foods contain genetically modified products. There has been no outcry over them. New logo attests
to healthy handling
Our reader's
opinionBy the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The nation's animal health agency has launched a program to allow producers to place a symbol to show that the products are not adulterated
Dear A.M. Costa Rica: In reference to your article of May 14, 2015, I have never found the U.S. Embassy willing to interfere with the sovereign courts of the government of Costa Rica on behalf of U.S. citizens. I think that this type of pressure should be exerted at a much higher level, especially when it comes to treaties being proposed between the two nations (CAFTA). A few years ago I worked on an investigation of the precaristas (squatters) who had been occupying large swaths of citrus farms in Los Chiles for over five years (a section called Medio Queso), claiming they were poor Nicaraguan peasants who had no land of their own. Upon further investigation, I learned that most of the squatters were Ticos who would actually go home for lunch and then return to the illegally occupied land. It got so ridiculous that after a few years the rural police put a small police station right on the occupied land. The citrus farms were owned by Canadians, and since they had a commercial treaty with Costa Rica, they were able to file a case in front of the World Bank Court in Washington, D.C. Ultimately, it turned out that the leader of the precaristas was formerly a student at the University of Costa Rica and then currently employed at the Ministry of Education as some type of roving educational consultant. After five years of this nonsense, an aggressive judge showed up at the encampment at 4 in the morning with a couple of police detention buses and an army of police and they started interviewing and classifying each squatter. When one woman with a child was confronted, she didn't have anybody to call to take care of the child as she was being arrested, and the judge threatened to call PANI, telling the lady, "you shouldn't endanger your child by squatting illegally." When this chisma spread, the whole organization dissolved like smoke. I Later I interviewed this judge who was reassigned to Cartago, and he said that it was an incompetent district attorney who never properly filed charges to remove the squatters. The government claimed they did not have adequate police in the border region. I interviewed the former chief of police for the entire northern frontier and he said they had 850 police ready with high speed watercraft and, if necessary, helicopters to remove these squatters. I guess the point of this story is that even investors at the highest levels get burned along with the rest. Seth Derish
Costa Rica Investigations, S.A. Costa Rica and Chico, California New women's group meets Saturday By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The now independent Professional Woman's Network will hold its first meeting Saturday with a master chocolatier as the guest speaker. The meeting is at Tin Jo Restaurant in San José at 9:30 a.m. The speaker is George Soriano, general manager of Sibu Chocolate. His topic is "Entrepreneurism: The Secret to Starting from Scratch," said an announcement. Those who attend are invited to stay for lunch, said the organization, which has its roots in the Women's Club of Costa Rica. More information about the organization can be found HERE! Uvita topic will be vocational training By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Julie McKeithan of The Oasis, a vocational training program for local Costa Rican women, will be the principal speaker Saturday in Uvita. The meeting is of the Costa Ballena Womens Network and begins at 11:30 a.m. The location is the Roadshack Deli. A tour of the Oasis facility next door will be available following the luncheon, organizers said. The network's board has designated The Oasis as this year’s charitable project, so the public is invited to come and learn all about the vocational training work done for women in the Uvita community. Those who attend will be able to purchase a lunch for the network for 5,000 colons, the organization said. More information on the Costa Ballena Womens Network can be found HERE! Bandit kills store operator in struggle By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A store operator suffered a fatal bullet wound when he struggled with a robber Wednesday night, said the Judicial Investigating Organization. The 42-year-old man and his son were in the food store in Concepción Arriba de Alajuelita about 7 p.m. when the bandit arrived on a motorcycle and appeared to be a shopper, agents said. The bandit then pulled a firearm, which is what caused the struggle. The store owner, who had the last name of Huiwan, died at the Clínica de Alajuelita a short time later due to the bullet wound in the chest, said agents. Animal adoption fair planned for Saturday By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Animales de Asís will hold another animal adoption fair at Walmart in Escazú Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The puppies, dogs, kittens and cats are vaccinated and ready to take home. The organization seeks a donation for each adoption. Amazon receives patent for drone delivery By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Amazon.com, the largest U.S.-based online retailer, has received a patent for its planned delivery system to get merchandise to customers by flying drones. In March, federal regulators gave their approval for Amazon to begin testing the new technology. But, the new service is still some time off. According to the patent application published by the U.S. Patent Office, Amazon plans to use the Global Positioning System, or GPS, not only for deliveries to homes around the country, but directly to purchasers, wherever they may be. Focusing on the location of the customer’s mobile device, usually a smartphone, the drone will be able to avoid both living things and inanimate obstacles, identify areas safe for landing and deliver the package within 30 minutes. For security reasons, the Federal Aviation Administration requires the drones in this experimental test period to remain within sight of their operators, which severely limits their reach. Amazon is working on solutions, says Loretta Alkalay, from Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology in New York. “I think that they are going to work on those in parallel with advancing the new technology. So I don’t see the security problems as being something that should stop the technology," said Alkalay. Amazon is still not advertising the drone deliveries, but Alkalay is optimistic that they will happen. “I do think that in the reasonably foreseeable future they are going to start doing deliveries. We have already seen deliveries being done in disaster areas and remote areas. I think there is a huge demand for that type of delivery," she said. There are still a number of concerns regarding possible collisions with various objects, as well as vandalism and theft of the drones and goods, but Alkalay says the media has assumed incorrectly that deliveries would be made to people’s front doors. “If you think of a drone delivery perhaps to your rooftop, then you’ll have an opportunity to separate the pedestrian and vehicular traffic, and at the same time separate it from air traffic," said Alkalay. Alkalay says even though American homes are not set up for rooftop deliveries, it is possible that future homes will have special platforms for air deliveries of small merchandise.
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, May 15, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 95 | |
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This graphical perspective shows the Turrialba volcano 3,330 meters high (10,925 feet) and the Irazú volcano, 3,402 meters high (11,161 feet) behind it at the east side of the Central Valley. The graphic was made with satellite imaging. |
 U.S. National Aeronautic and Space
Administration graphic
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| There is a lot of work that is going on underneath Costa Rica |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Living in Costa Rica is like being in a construction site. There seem to be workmen hammering away all day long in the basement. But there is much to be done. The isthmus on which Costa Rica sits is very new, geologically speaking. Scientists argue just when the isthmus closed the waterway between North and South America. Some say 15 million, and others say just 3 million. Still, either date is very recent in geology where the estimates can be in the hundreds of million. Consequently the work is not done. Hundreds of earthquakes take place each month, although only a small percentage are felt by humans. The Cocos tectonic plate in the Pacific continually is forcing its way under the Caribbean tectonic plate on which the country rides. The interaction between the plates and other adjacent ones creates the central volcanic ridge that is the spine of Costa Rica. The Cocos plate made its most recent statement at 8:08 a.m. |
Thursday with
a 5.3 quake off northern Costa Rica in the Pacific.
Scientists estimated the epicenter at 95 kilometers west
of Santa Elena de Santa Cruz and 111.4 kilometers northwest of
Tamarindo. The quake was felt along the northern Pacific coast, according to the Laboratorio de Ingeniería Sísmica at the Universidad de Costa Rica. Scientists suspect that the water pushed through the area where the plates make contact is responsible for some of the inland volcanic activity. And Costa Rica certainly is having plenty of that. The Volcán Turrialba east of the Central Valley in Cartago erupted again Thursday at 3:13 p.m. Scientists at the Red Sismológica Nacional said they recorded a strong tremor associated with the eruption that lasted 50 minutes. The tremor comes from gas and ash forcing their way through the volcano vents. The volcano has been an annoyance because the ash sometimes lands at Juan Santamaría airport and causes administrators there to close the runways. Things could be worse. Under much of the Central Valley are thick layers of ancient material expelled from the volcanos to the west. |
| Five home invading suspects caught after bold, daylight
robbery |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Bold daylight home invaders broke into a dwelling in Turrucares, Alajuela, Thursday afternoon, tied up the occupants and then looted the place. Fuerza Pública officers got a tip and grabbed two suspects near the home in a vehicle. Then they were able to surprise three more as they left the home through the front door. Police said they confiscated a firearm. Also Thursday police in Granadilla de Curridabat managed |
to capture
two juveniles and an 18 year old who are suspects in a home burglary
there. The minors are 14 and 16. Police said they recovered stolen items from the trio. Out in Playa Azul de Santa Cruz, Guanacaste, neighbors alerted police when they saw a man and a woman breaking into a car that had been parked by tourists from Switzerland, said the Fuerza Pública. Officers were able to chase suspects who were in a car and detain them, they said. Officers recovered cameras, cell telephones and cash, they said. |
| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, May 15, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 95 | |||||
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| Latin American expansion of agricultural land reported to be
slowing |
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By the University of British Columbia news
staff
For the first time, satellite mapping of Latin America shows that the continent’s agricultural expansion has waned in the wake of the global economic downturn, according to University of British Columbia research. “Nearly every agricultural region across Latin America slowed down in expansion from 2007 to 2013, compared to the previous six years,” says Jordan Graesser, the study’s lead author. Graesser is a visiting international student at the university. The study, recently published in Environmental Research Letters, involved the first large-scale mapping of changes in cropland and pastureland over more than a decade at the continental scale, using satellite imagery. The slowdown is notable, given that agriculture in Latin America expanded faster over the past few decades compared to any other region on earth. The growth was fueled by the continent’s green revolution in the 1960s, where agricultural innovations, such as the development of new seeds, increased crop yields. But the agricultural decline revealed by the study may not last. “Agriculture in Latin America is tied to global commodity prices,” says Graesser, a doctoral student at McGill University’s Department of Geography. “So if the |
global
economy continues to recover, and if crop prices increase,
there’s likely going to be more expansion, which could impact
biodiversity and boost carbon emissions.” Soy production is the key driver of cropland expansion in South America. Much of the soy grown there is used to feed poultry and pigs in China, where the consumption of meat has surged as the population gains affluence. Pasture expansion is driven by the growth of beef cattle production, fueled by exports to Europe and increasing domestic consumption. Biofuels are another driver of cropland expansion in some Latin American countries. For example, sugarcane from Brazil is used for biofuel production. The study used 13 years of satellite imagery to quantify cropland and pastureland expansion across Latin America. Cropland, the more intensive practice, refers to the growing of row crops such as soy, maize, wheat and cotton. Pastureland refers to grassland ecosystems that are grazed by livestock, primarily beef cattle in Latin America. Brazil’s Cerrado and Atlantic Forest regions, and Argentina’s Humid Pampas region, experienced the greatest increase in new cropland from 2001 to 2013. The southern and eastern borders of the Brazilian Amazon and the Dry Chaco region that stretches across Paraguay, Bolivia, Argentina and Brazil had the largest amount of new pastureland. |
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, May 15, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 95 | |||||||
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| Rights groups ask organizers to push to free Baku prisoners By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Athletes across Europe will gather next month in Baku for the inaugural European Games, a triumph for Azerbaijan’s ambitious government and an outrage for human rights and anti-corruption activists. Human Rights Watch and the Committee to Protect Journalists called on the leadership of the European Olympic Committees Thursday to insist that the government of Azerbaijan release “those imprisoned on politically motivated charges, including journalists and human rights defenders, and to end its crackdown on critical voices,” ahead of the European Games. Quick to praise President Ilham Aliyev’s preparation for the inaugural European Games, the European Olympic Committees leadership has so far maintained a public silence in the face of serious abuse and repression by Azerbaijan’s government against its critics, said Jane Buchanan, associate Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The window to finally speak up before the games open is closing fast, but the EOC still has an opportunity to stand up for Olympic values, including by unambiguously calling for prisoner releases.” Twelve journalists or bloggers have been arrested on government orders in Azerbaijan. They include Azerbaijan’s leading investigative journalist, Khadija Ismayilova of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Azerbaijani Service, Radio Azadliq. “The EOC needs to use its unique leverage with Azerbaijan in the run-up to Baku 2015 to stand up for press freedom and human dignity,” said Nina Ognianova, Europe and Central Asia program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists. “These values are universal ones that Azerbaijan has voluntarily committed to uphold.” Ms. Ognianova said that “the EOC and international leaders should press for Azerbaijan to adhere to its voluntarily assumed international commitments regarding human rights and fulfill its obligations on freedom and human dignity.” Earlier this week, the U.S. State Department called on the Azeri government to release the arrested journalists. Some analysts say that by holding these games, President Ilham Aliyev’s government is trying to portray Azerbaijan as a country with 21st century values, like any other in Europe. But looking at the reports compiled by international organizations working to ensure press freedom and human rights around the world, Azerbaijan falls among the countries not conforming to the best practices. In its most recent report, Freedom House classified Azerbaijan as not free when it comes to press freedom. Freedom House joined other human rights organizations and former diplomats in a joint letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, asking the United States to impose a visa ban and freeze assets of Azerbaijani officials involved in large-scale human rights abuses. While some analysts are questioning the wisdom of European countries that promote human rights values around the world for taking part in games hosted by a government with dubious human rights records, others do not see it this way. Klaus Larres, professor at the University of North Carolina, is an expert on contemporary transatlantic relations and European integration. He hopes that the participation of European countries with good human rights and press freedom record may nudge President Aliyev in the right direction. “These games cannot do any harm. They may do some good. We don’t know yet. Azerbaijani people are intelligent enough to see that the games and European values are not one and the same,” Larres said. While the Azerbaijani government is busy preparing for the games, international human rights bodies continue to urge U.S. and European governments to pressure it to release the journalists and human rights activists arrested on trumped up charges. Jeb Bush having his problems with his take on Iraq invasion By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Former Florida governor and expected presidential candidate Jeb Bush sought to end a political controversy Thursday over the Iraq war. Bush said at a town hall event in Tempe, Arizona, that faced with the decision today, he would not have launched the invasion of Iraq carried out by his brother, former President George W. Bush, in 2003. "Knowing what we know now, I would not have engaged. I would have not gone into Iraq," Bush told the crowd. Bush’s statement in Arizona was the latest attempt to put a controversy to rest that has dogged the former Florida governor for most of this week. Bush set off a political firestorm Monday when he was asked by anchor Megyn Kelly on Fox News about the Iraq war and the faulty intelligence used to justify it. “Knowing what we know now, would you have authorized the invasion?” asked Ms. Kelly. “I would have and so would have Hillary Clinton, just to remind everybody, and so would have almost everybody that was confronted with the intelligence they got,” responded Bush. Bush later said he misheard the question and gave a different response during a town hall event in Reno, Nevada, two days later. “What we ought to be focusing on is what are the lessons learned. There are two lessons learned on this. One is that if you are going to go to war, make sure that you have the best intelligence possible and the intelligence broke down. And, secondly, if you are going to do this, have a strategy of security and have a strategy to get out,” said Bush. When pressed, Bush declined to answer directly what he would do today, adding it was a hypothetical question. Bush’s varying answers on Iraq gave an opening to some of his rivals for the Republican nomination. Senators Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida all said, given what they know now, they would not have launched an invasion. All three have officially announced their candidacies. Rubio spoke at a foreign policy event in New York. “If the intelligence had said Iraq does not have a weapon of mass destruction capability, I don’t believe President Bush would have authorized to move forward,” said Rubio. Analysts said that Bush hopes now to close out the controversy with his latest comments. But University of Virginia analyst Larry Sabato said he was surprised by what he called the Bush stumble on Iraq this week. “The Iraq war was going to be very controversial for Jeb Bush regardless, but he has made it much worse for himself with a gigantic gaffe. It is inevitable that his foes in the Republican Party and if he makes it to the general, the Democrats will be using those soundbites in which he appears to endorse his brother’s actions in Iraq when even his brother, President George W. Bush, has indicated repeatedly that he wished that he hadn’t gone into Iraq.” Still, Sabato and many other analysts see Bush as a strong contender on the Republican side, along with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Marco Rubio and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. Republican strategist Ford O’Connell predicts staying power for Bush. “What we can say is that there will be certain names that are likely to hang around at least until the end, and Jeb Bush is one of them, as well as Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker,” said Republican strategist Ford O’Connell. One conservative foreign policy advocate who will not be among the Republican presidential contenders in 2016 is the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton. But Bolton told reporters in a conference call that he would try to ensure that the Republican contenders keep national security and foreign policy concerns front and center during the upcoming campaign. “I am putting a marker down that I expect the Republican Party will remain the party of national security and that all of the candidates who may go forward are going to have to show that they are systematically and comprehensively addressing national security issues.” Jeb Bush has raised millions of dollars for a possible campaign. His formal campaign announcement could come next month. Sabato said the latest controversy over Iraq will be encouraging to some of Bush’s rivals. “It is pretty clear that Jeb Bush is not frightening anybody out of the race. There could be as many as 20 candidates and there probably will be about a dozen and it is obvious already that Jeb Bush is doing very poorly in Iowa and several of the other early states.” The latest Fox News poll found Bush tied for the lead among Republican primary voters with 13 percent along with retired surgeon Ben Carson, who announced his campaign last week. Scott Walker came in at 11 percent followed by Mike Huckabee with 10 percent, Marco Rubio at 9 percent and Rand Paul at 7 percent. Bilingual schools increasing as parents see the advantages By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Grand View Boulevard Elementary in Los Angeles is an unconventional school. Subjects are taught in both English and Spanish. That ultimately puts these students ahead of their peers in traditional English-only schools, said Principal Alfredo Ortiz. “The students at the beginning, at the initial stages, might not be ready," he said. "However, as they get into third, fourth and fifth grade, the scores began to change, where our students in the dual-language program are excelling and, in fact, outperforming our students in the English-only program." With a 26-year track record, this dual-language immersion program at Grand View is the oldest of its kind in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Other language-immersion schools have emerged within the district, including a Mandarin program at Broadway Elementary. The school's principal, Susan Wang, said the programs are growing. “The Mandarin-immersion program grew four classes per year and slowly filled up the school, to the point that we really need to think about another space to grow the program,” she said. Over the last 10 years, the number of bilingual programs within the district has quadrupled, according to school board member Steve Zimmer. “With a global economy and with global marketplaces, folks understand, parents understand, that multiliteracy is almost as important as literacy itself — almost as important as any other baseline academic marker," he said. "That is what has changed." This trend is not limited to Los Angeles. The organizer of a recent Los Angeles bilingual education fair also held an event in New York City last year. The response for both events has been good. In addition to an awareness of what is needed in a global economy, there has been a shift in thinking among immigrants, said fair organizer Emmanuel Saint-Martin of the magazine French Morning. “A lot of the immigrants of today have a different view than their parents had," Saint-Martin said. "Their parents, a few decades ago, would rather have their kids speak only English. They were really obsessed with the idea of integrating. Now they know, those parents, that you can integrate in the country, speak perfect English, and keep your heritage language.” That is how Xavier Lannes is raising his children. “I am French, my wife is Mexican, and we are living in the U.S. so my kids speak three languages. They speak French, Spanish and English,” he said. Education researchers have found speaking more than one language can enhance cognitive abilities. Bilingual and multilingual speakers process information more efficiently, and some studies even find that speaking more than one language can delay the onset of Alzheimer’s. That is why some nonimmigrant American parents are exposing their children to another language as early as preschool, said Angelika Putintseva of the WorldSpeak School, a language-immersion school in Los Angeles. “We are on the frontier of multilingual education, so it is not only one language, one second language that the child is learning with us," she said. "We are teaching second, third, fourth, and some children speak five languages.“ The Los Angeles public school system expects its language-immersion program to continue to grow. The ultimate goal, many educators said, is to offer the programs from kindergarten through the 12th grade, so graduates are truly citizens of the world.  Voice of America
photo
Steve Brill seen among cemetery monuments.
Forager
gives city folks
a taste of edible plants By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Since 1986, a man who calls himself Wildman Steve Brill has been leading foraging tours in New York City parks, showing people how to identify plants and fungi that they can dig up and take home for dinner. Recently Brill led his first urban foraging tour in Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery, showing people which wild plants are good to eat and which are not. “Eat the wrong thing, and" he hums a few bars of a funeral march. "Okay, so, at this time of year there are lots of greens coming up, we’re going to look for those. There are shoots, which are stems with leaves around them, and there are roots,” he said. Though he usually forages in New York parks, he and his tour group are not bothered one bit by the graveyard setting. “It’s a little unusual, definitely, but it’s peaceful and serene here, plus, if anyone eats the wrong thing, they’ll be right at home,” said Brill. Over the course of two hours, Brill finds plenty of edibles among the graves: violets, hairy bittercress, star chickweed and wild garlic, among others. He serves them all up with Borscht Belt humor. “Okay, here’s probably the best-known edible plant, the wild dandelion. The name dandelion comes from the French dent-de-lion, which means lion’s tooth, " he explained to the group. He shares his knowledge of botany and cooking, spicing it up with stories from history, myth and his own life, like the time he was arrested in Central Park for eating a dandelion. “They were undercover agents that were set on my tour by the New York City Parks Department . . . popped out from behind the bushes. They surrounded me in case I was going to climb up a tree. They searched my backpack. Fortunately I had eaten all the evidence,” he said. While the foragers gather eagerly, what they find gets mixed reviews. Brill said the point of the tours is education and enjoyment not sustenance from New York City earth. But he still could survive on foraged items if he had to. “I’m not a wilderness survivalist, but if I had to, I certainly know enough plants that you can eat, that I wouldn’t starve,” he said. Unless, maybe, more people take up urban foraging. In fact, Brill said, he first learned it from some Greek women he saw gathering grape leaves in a park in Queens. |
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Colorado S.A. 2015 and may not be reproduced anywhere without
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Trade
promotion authority revived
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The U.S. Senate has bolstered President Barack Obama’s trade agenda by voting 65-33 to begin debate on a bill facilitating the approval of a free trade pact among 12 Pacific Rim nations that account for 40 percent of global economic output. “This debate will determine whether our nation is willing and able to accept the challenges of the world economy, or whether we continue in retreat and yield to the siren song of isolationism and protectionism,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Republican who co-authored trade promotion authority, a bill that subjects trade accords to up-or-down congressional votes with no amendments allowed. “It will determine whether we as a nation are able and willing to set the rules for the world economy, or whether we will sit on the sidelines and let other countries create the rules,” said Hatch. Two days after Democrats blocked debate on trade promotion authority, a faction of pro-trade Democrats joined with Republicans Thursday to advance the measure, which has the firm backing of the Obama administration. Still, a sizable number of Democrats normally loyal to Obama voted no including Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats. “Any objective look at these trade agreements will tell us that they have cost us millions of decent-paying jobs and have led us to a race to the bottom where American workers are forced to compete against workers in low-wage countries who are making pennies an hour,” said Sanders, who is also a Democratic candidate for president. Trade promotion authority backers insist the shortcomings of previous trade legislation, like the North American Free Trade Agreement, have been corrected. “We are putting in place a modern trade policy, a trade policy that sets aside once and for all the NAFTA playbook of the 1990s,” said Democrat Ron Wyden. “It must start with a tough, robust, effective trade enforcement package.” Trade promotion authority is viewed as critical for concluding the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, which has been negotiated for years. It will be merged with a bill to assist American workers displaced by new trade pacts, satisfying a key demand of Democratic lawmakers. The trade debate exposed an acrimonious rift between President Obama and a sizable number of congressional Democrats leery of new trade deals or strongly opposed to them. In recent weeks, the White House publicly disagreed with those lawmakers, earning unusual praise from the Senate’s Republican majority leader, Mitch McConnell, who hailed the advance of trade legislation as good news for America’s middle class. “I’d like to thank the president,” said McConnell. “No, you’re not hearing things. President Obama has done his country a service by taking on his base and pushing back on some of the more ridiculous rhetoric we’ve heard.” Congressional debate could rage for weeks on trade promotion authority, which America's business community overwhelmingly supports and labor groups and environmentalists fiercely oppose. Before the procedural vote on trade promotion authority, the Senate voted 78-20 to approve a bill cracking down on currency manipulation by America’s economic competitors, especially China. “China seems to feel it can get away with any kind of trade misdeed,” said Democrat Chuck Schumer. “We must do something that shows China once and for all they just can’t get away with it.” Hatch expressed concerns that punitive currency provisions would invite retaliatory measures by other countries against U.S. monetary policy. The Senate also voted 97-1 to approve preferential tariff treatment for goods produced in African and other developing nations. “This renewal of the AGOA law takes the program to the next level,” said Wyden of the African Growth and Opportunity Act. “I believe it works for our country, for Sub-Saharan Africa, and it ought to be a cornerstone of our economic policy in the region.” |
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| From Page 7: Two firms announce more job openings By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Multinational companies Dole and Precision Concepts announced they will expand their operations in Costa Rica, resulting in 200 new jobs, said Casa Presidencial. Dole said it will double its payroll in Costa Rica and hire 150 new employees at its shared service center to strengthen its European operations. Meanwhile the company in the life sciences industry, Precision Concepts, said it will increase its payroll by 50 new jobs for a total of 200 workers. The announcement from both companies comes on the second day of a U.S. investment by a delegation headed by President Luis Guillermo Solís Rivera. |
