MEDIA REACTION ON CAFTA, MAY 20, 2005

UNCLAS TEGUCIGALPA 001091

SIPDIS

DEPT. FOR WHA/PD; IIP/G/WHA DIPASQUALE; AND IIP/T/ES
DEPT. FOR EB/TPP DCLUNE, WHA/EPSC AND WHA/CEN
DEPT. PASS USTR

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: OIIP KPAO ETRD HO USTR
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION ON CAFTA, MAY 20, 2005



1. Op-ed in San Pedro Sula-based liberal daily "La Prensa"
on 5/20 by Tulio Mariano Gonzalez, entitled "With or without
CAFTA, Honduras lives." "The Caribbean Basin Initiative is
a preliminary step in the long road towards CAFTA-DR,
characterized essentially as a space for free investment,
which is believed may become an apparently free market."

"Free commerce is a reality: opposing it is dumb and
stubborn, it is also less intelligent to bet all in favor of
this procedure which the majority of U.S. congressmen don't
support."

"There are a lot of indicators that reflect agricultural
deterioration, tendency toward behavioral change and high
consumption of yellow corn. The urban population grows
faster than the rural, and the social sector factories
failed due to the `geniuses' that promoted the Agriculture
Modernization Law."

"The truth about free trade treaties is that they are not
development strategies, they are financial openness. We
can't forget the competition that will exist between these
poor countries to access the leftovers of the northern
market."

"Therefore, it's imperative to create the necessary
conditions to take an advantage of the benefit of the
trends. Afterwards, irreversibly, the time will come to
overcome the minor and basic characteristics of free trade
to converge in the free circulation of people, to overcome
the asymmetries with equity, thus reaching a fare trade and
a prosperous world."

Palmer