Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05TEGUCIGALPA1565
2005-07-29 17:20:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Tegucigalpa
Cable title:  

MEDIA REACTION ON CAFTA, JULY 28, 2005

Tags:  OIIP KPAO ETRD HO USTR 
pdf how-to read a cable
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS TEGUCIGALPA 001565 

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, JULY 28, 2005


UNCLAS TEGUCIGALPA 001565

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, JULY 28, 2005



1. On 07/28 the Tegucigalpa-based liberal daily "La
Tribuna" published an op-ed by Segisfredo Infante entitled
"Lack of Productivity versus FTA." "The Economic capacity
of Honduras is so small that it runs the risk of appearing
ridiculous when compared to the growing possibilities of an
intense international market free of trade tariffs."

"Nobody ignores the fact that the American production
capacity is gigantic and that our national capacity to
compete is pretty much microscopic. However, a tropical
country such as ours has the potential for agricultural
production and exports that the United States will never
have. This opens the possibility of creating or discovering
some niches for new markets, which pragmatically we
Hondurans will have to identify."

"I am very familiar with the intensive work of the
negotiating group of the ex-Minister Norman Garcia, who was
kind enough to give me the two gigantic volumes of the `Free
Trade Agreement' as gifts. I dare say that the normative
work represents 85% of the efforts of Honduran and Costa
Rican negotiators and perhaps a little less by the
Guatemalans, Salvadorans, and Nicaraguans. However, the
legal framework will never resolve the issue of the enormous
discrepancies derived from the lack of productivity of our
society. For this reason, I have always talked about the
positive and negative aspects of a `free' market removed
from the structural realities of Honduras. In any case,
this will continue to be an issue for Hondurans and sometime
in the future one for North Americans. We will then continue
to have a national problem for a long time."

Tuebner