MEDIA REACTION: CAFTA LAUNCH

UNCLAS TEGUCIGALPA 000069

SIPDIS

FOR PD/WHA (MBUCKLEY); IIP/G/WHA DIPASQUALE; EB/EPPD DCLUNE;
USTR AGASH
INFO IIP/T/ES
EMBASSIES FOR PAOS, IOs,

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: OIIP KPAO HO PA ETRD USTR
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: CAFTA LAUNCH



1. January 9: "La Tribuna," a Liberal Party Tegucigalpa-
based daily, carried a full-page article on the CAFTA launch
using IIP press release with headline "U.S. and Central
American countries initiated free trade negotiations."


2. "Tiempo," San Pedro Sula-based liberal paper owned by
businessman and congressional deputy Jaime Rosenthal, also
carried the banner headline: "CAFTA negotiations will bump
agricultural products" and "U.S. and Central America will
strengthen trade."


3. "El Heraldo," moderate Tegucigalpa-based daily, and "La
Prensa," Liberal daily based in San Pedro Sula carried full
page articles, entitled respectively "Central America and
the U.S. on the way to Free Trade" and "The first agreements
of the Free Trade Agreement with the U.S. -have been
reached"


4. January 10: "El Heraldo" and "Tiempo" carried half-page
articles on CAFTA from a Washington-based reporter: "North
American Manufacturers support CAFTA."


5. National TV and radio news program gave full coverage to
the CAFTA launch using the IIP press release and
international video. Nation-wide radio station HRN and
Radio America read the press release.


6. An editorial in "Tiempo" entitled: U.S. and Central
American Free Trade Agreement"- "the first free trade
negotiations between Central American countries and the U.S.
promoted by President Bush will take place at the end of the
month. The completion of CAFTA has among its political goals
that Central America should be prepared to join the FTAA -
projected to be completed in 2005, although at the moment
several MERCOSUR countries have expressed a strong
opposition to an FTAA agreement and the creation of
sufficient employment to avoid the loss of the Central
American labor force to migration to the U.S.


7. "There is no doubt that these negotiations will be
complex and difficult, because in between there are two
asymmetric bases: "the unequal development among Central
American countries, and that of Central America with the
U.S." In general terms what it pictures is the shark and the
sardines.


8. "The fact is that Central American negotiators should be
of great experience in order to present the value of the
regional development situation and translate these into an
adequate safe-guard without losing sight of the importance
of the global feeling of these negotiations." They must
also pay special attention to production problems and
farming commercialization, which is the backbone of the
Central American economies; for this, they need to pay
attention to the Mexican experience with NAFTA"


9. "The completion and implementation of CAFTA is a
overarching goal of regional development, but only if we
know how to negotiate and discover in the North American
positions a true understanding and political support for
building a growing economy in Central America the importance
of the inclusion of the labor rights so vital to Central
American integration."

Palmer