MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Costa Rica 'supports' controversial US trade deal

Dr. Oscar Arias happy with the referendum result

Costa Rica's president Oscar Arias declared victory Sunday in his drive to join a free trade deal with the United States, announcing on television that voters had backed it in a referendum.

"The people of Costa Rica have said yes to the free trade agreement, and that for me is a sacred wish," Arias said in a televised address to the nation after Costa Ricans voted in their tens of thousands on the measure. Earlier partial results showed that with 73 per cent of votes counted, just over 50 per cent of voters said yes to the agreement against 47.5 per cent who voted no, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. Turnout was around 60 per cent. Costa Rica is the only one of the six Latin American signatories to the trade deal, known as CAFTA, which has yet to ratify it. The pact is in effect in the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador. Ahead of the vote, U.S. officials and Costa Rica's president appealed for voters to back the deal. The White House on Saturday said if Costa Ricans vote against joining the agreement, the Bush administration will not renegotiate the deal and it urged people to recognize the treaty's benefits. The pact would "expand Costa Rica's access to the U.S. market, safeguard that access under international law, attract U.S. and other investment and link Costa Rica to some of the most dynamic economies of our hemisphere," White House press secretary Dana Perino said in a statement. U.S. officials also suggested they may not extend trade preferences now afforded to Costa Rican products and set to expire next September. President Oscar Arias said a 'no' vote would affect industries in this Central American nation of 4.5 million people, and called it an "important tool for generating wealth in the country." Arias, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for helping end Central America's civil wars in the 1980s, also said rejecting the pact would threatened trade benefits that help Costa Rica's textile and tuna industries. But critics of the pact object to its requirements that Costa Rica open its telecommunications, services and agricultural sectors to greater competition. They also fear it will mean a flood of cheap U.S. farm imports. When Arias arrived at a polling station to vote, opponents of the pact almost prevent him from entering and yelled "Arias traitor!" Others shouted in support of the pact. Groups of demonstrators for and against the agreement marched Sunday in the capital, San Jose. As polls closed Sunday evening, electoral authorities estimated that participation surpassed 40 percent of registered voters, the minimum for results to be binding. Despite its conflicts over trade, Costa Rica fares better than other Central American countries: It has a thriving eco-tourism industry, maintains relatively high-paying jobs and is a magnet for Salvadoran and Nicaraguan migrants. Costa Rica exported $3.37 billion in goods to the United States last year and imported goods worth $4.57 billion, according to Costa Rica's trade ministry