PATHWAYS TO PROSPERITY: COSTA RICA PREPARES FOR

UNCLAS SAN JOSE 000862 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL ECON CS HO AMGT OPDC OVIP SUBJECT: PATHWAYS TO PROSPERITY: COSTA RICA PREPARES FOR MINISTERIAL ¶1. SUMMARY. Costa Rican officials are working diligently to prepare for a successful Pathways to Prosperity ministerial meeting in December, which they hope Secretary Clinton will attend. In a meeting with visiting State Department officials, they undertook to coordinate efforts to improve and standardize the content of the draft working papers. They also agreed on measures to continue involving only recognized Honduran officials in preparation for the ministerial. Meanwhile, the business community in Costa Rica has not heard about Pathways from the government but is interested in being involved. END SUMMARY. ¶2. WHA/EPSC Director Matt Rooney, EEB/TPP/BTA Director Bob Manogue, and WHA/EPSC officer Susan Garro visited Costa Rica September 16-17 to discuss Pathways to Prosperity with Costa Rican counterparts in preparation for the ministerial meeting in San Jose in December. They held a productive joint meeting with officials from the Export Promotion Ministry (COMEX) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and, separately, with the Chairs of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) and the Chamber of Exporters of Costa Rica (CADEXCO). ¶3. In the meeting with COMEX and the MFA, the delegation and their counterparts reached agreement on how to manage the role played by Honduras in Pathways. Honduras is responsible for preparing one of four working papers to be presented at the December ministerial, and progress had been stymied since the assumption of power by the de facto government. The group agreed that President Zelaya's Minister of Economy, Fredis Cerrato, would continue to coordinate the effort on this paper, while the technical work would be performed by staff of CENPROMYPE, an agency of the Central American Integration System that focuses on small and medium enterprises. COMEX representative Esteban Aguero noted that, at a recent meeting, Central American foreign ministers had expressed openness to a solution of this nature. The Costa Rican officials agreed to circulate to the governments participating in Pathways an updated e-mail addresses list that excluded officials in the Honduran de facto ministries and included CENPROMYPE. This step was important, since technical level officials were communicating frequently via e-mail, and they inadvertently had been including Honduran officials who should not have been involved. ¶4. Turning to the substance of the draft working papers, WHA/EPSC Director Rooney expressed concern that they were uneven, ranging from simply listing programs without analyzing lessons learned or highlighting successes, to laying out useful suggestions for sharing of best practices. Aguero agreed and undertook to coordinate with the working group leaders and other interested countries to standardize the papers, ensuring they included appropriate analysis. He suggested shifting the original planning schedule by a month, requiring the papers to be completed by late October or early November, and stressed that he wanted the declaration to be completed prior to the ministerial meeting. He noted that the Inter-American Development Bank had offered assistance. ¶5. The Government of Costa Rica (GOCR) was very hopeful that Secretary Clinton would attend the Pathways ministerial, Aguero emphasized. He said President Arias and Foreign Minister Stagno planned to invite her when they met with her in New York on the margins of the UN General Assembly. (Note: The conversation in New York ultimately focused mainly on the Honduras crisis, but the Secretary did express continued commitment to Pathways. End note.) Aguero noted that the Central American presidents would hold a summit in San Jose December 7 to 9. Therefore, if Secretary Clinton came to the Pathways ministerial December 10 or 11, she could meet with them. In addition, the GOCR could plan activities for her related to climate change, gender, youth, and/or development of small and medium enterprises. Aguero made clear that Costa Rica was willing to adjust the dates of the ministerial to accommodate Secretary Clinton's schedule. Rooney responded that perhaps more important than the dates was the expected outcome; there needed to be a good result to make it worthwhile for the Secretary to participate. ¶6. The Costa Rican officials commended the USG's efforts to host in October a program fostering women entrepreneurs' access to international markets and finance. Rooney suggested that Costa Rican officials host a follow-on event in San Jose to leverage the experience of the Costa Rican participants to a wider audience. ¶7. EEB/TPP/BTA Director Manogue asked the Costa Ricans for their honest assessment of the value of Pathways to Prosperity for their country. Aguero responded enthusiastically that Pathways opened the door to working with economic partners on social issues that arose in the context of trade agreements but were not addressed by them. Manogue suggested that it was essential for each participating government to identify several specific objectives that they wished to accomplish through Pathways. ¶8. In their meeting with the delegation, the CADEXCO and AmCham Chairs said they had not heard about Pathways from the GOCR. However, they believed it could be a useful forum to address concerns about issues that were related to but not covered by trade agreements. ¶9. Commenting that free trade was important but not enough, CADEXCO Chairwoman Monica Araya described the associations' efforts to prepare their members to compete. She and AmCham Chairwoman Lynda Solar stressed that GOCR officials were not trained adequately to administer Costa Rica's free trade agreements (FTAs). As an example, she described a case in which GOCR officials had given a business export permits for three containers of perishable merchandise. However, when the product arrived in the Dominican Republic, Dominican officials halted the shipment, because it lacked appropriate paperwork from Costa Rica. The business owner had to fly to the Dominican Republic, and she and CADEXCO spent days resolving the problem. Araya said the trade associations have compiled a book that analyzed the performance of the GOCR institutions involved in FTAs. She underscored that the GOCR must invest in training personnel in order to be able to manage the FTAs effectively. Rooney said the trade associations' book could be of interest to the Pathways working group on competitiveness and cross-border movement of trade chaired by Panama. Manogue stressed that specific issues arising from the implementation of CAFTA should be dealt with in the mechanisms provided for by CAFTA, while agreeing that Pathways would be a useful tool for sustaining the political commitment to needed reforms. ¶10. Araya and Solar thought it would be important for private sector representatives to participate in the Pathways ministerial. Rooney welcomed their interest. At the same time, he explained some private sector participants in other international fora had found the discussions sterile, and Pathway organizers wanted to avoid that dynamic. Solar asked whether CAFTA trade capacity building funds could be directed to Pathways projects. Rooney responded that Pathways did not involve assistance projects but worked at a policy level in parallel to those programs. ¶11. COMMENT: Costa Rica's Export Promotion Ministry officials are truly enthusiastic about Pathways and will do everything possible to make the ministerial a success. That said, they have not yet been able to articulate concrete outcomes that they would like to see from Pathways. We will continue to encourage them to try to identify specific objectives. Without that vision, Pathways will have limited impact on the lives of Costa Rican citizens. END COMMENT. The delegation cleared this message. BRENNAN