CAFTA-DR aka TLC Free Trade Agreement

The TLC or CAFTA- DR trade agreement is a free trade agreement between the United States, Central America, and the Dominican Republic, with the idea that this would become a free trade zone just like with NAFTA combining Canada, the United States, and Mexico. This zone does about $30 billion USD annually in business between each other. Basically, the TLC states all of the items  that are available for free trade and their exceptions.

In summary, the TLC´s main and fundamental objective is to stimulate the expansion and diversification of commerce in the region. In doing so, the agreement tries to eliminate trade barriers, promote competition to produce the best products & services at the best prices, integrate neighboring economies, increase opportunities for investment, and promote intelectual property rights.

The TLC was in the news everyday, on TV every day, and it was all anyone seemed to be talking about, writing about, or reporting about in 2004. The Costa Rican population was very divided on the topic and it is certainly something that lead to very heated debates on whether it was something that was going to siginificantly benefit the country and its businesses or severly shatter the Costa Rican economy and leave people jobless, homeless, hungry, and the country in complete shambles. There were even physical demonstrations with protests in the streets. Many of those invoved in the protests were college students.

Some Costa Ricans supported the TLC without a second throught simply knowing how reliant and dependent Costa Rica is on the United States for many goods.Many Costa Ricans realized that Costa Rica does not have a lot of bargaining chips with a power house such as the United States. Others in this camp were big businesses looking for tax breaks when exporting their goods/services to others in the region.

Other Costa Ricans and especially extremists painted an almost dooms day picture of all the negatives that could happen if the deal was signed. Some radio broadcasts even stated that the TLC made it legal to traffic cocaine and also legal to kill whales which of course was one interpretation. The agricultural sector also opposed strongly in fear they would not be able to compete with the US agriculture industry due to their special loans and protections in the US.

And yet a third group was on the fence left to decide what information was true or what was false about the TLC and if overall signing the agreement would be better or worse for Costa Rica.

Without a doubt the TLC will have serious political and economic ramifications and therefore it was very positive that the population took it so seriously.

The controversy over the TLC lead to many skewed misinterpretations from both camps and the release of even false information regarding the agreement to try and prove both sides.

The citizens were able to vote about it and the TLC won by a small margin 52% to 48% it was a monumental day in October of 2007. Over 40% of the voting population came out to caste their opinion.  The TLC was ratified and signed and will be put into full affect sometime in 2010. Only time will tell, and soon everyone will know if the benefits outweigh the disadvantages of the agreement as it is put into action.