US embassy cable - 03TEGUCIGALPA2215

UNCLAS TEGUCIGALPA 002215 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT. FOR WHA/PD; IIP/G/WHA DIPASQUALE; EB/TPP DCLUNE, AND 
IIP/T/ES 
DEPT. PASS USTR FOR AGASH 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OIIP, KPAO, ETRD, HO, USTR 
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION ON CAFTA, SEPTEMBER 17, 2003 
 
 
1. Editorial in Tegucigalpa-based liberal daily "La Tribuna" on 
9/17 entitled "Flexibility".  "In this new round of CAFTA 
negotiations taking place in Managua, the Central American 
negotiators and businessmen have expressed their concern for the 
delay of the negotiations on the issue of textiles.  According to 
unofficial sources, the U.S. is implementing a strategy to slow 
down the negotiations on sensitive issues, in an attempt to deal 
with all of them in the last round, which will take place in 
December in Washington, where the Central American ministers and 
presidents will be under an intense political pressure to resolve 
them." 
 
"In Managua, the U.S. lead negotiator has urged her Central 
American counterparts to be flexible to prevent the collapse of 
this agreement.  She also referred to what has just happened in 
Cancun during the WTO meeting, complaining that some Central 
American countries that are members of the G-21 went with a lot 
of demands, but they aren't flexible enough to consider the 
demands of others." 
 
"It is obvious that the U.S. is still reluctant to eliminate the 
subsidies for their agricultural products, and it has put up a 
obstacles for the exportation of textiles from Central America. 
These problems are very detrimental for our agriculture which is 
the main means of subsistence of our poor, and also our textile 
industry which is one of the few areas we can be fairly 
competitive in the framework of this agreement." 
 
 
2. Article in Tegucigalpa-based moderate daily "El Heraldo" on 
9/17 entitled "The U.S. stuns negotiators by rejecting previous 
agreements within CAFTA".  "Some agreements that were almost 
finalized in the latest rounds were suddenly changed by the U.S. 
negotiating team, while the Central American counterparts were 
not aware of those changes.  Carlos Sequeira, lead Nicaraguan 
negotiator stated, `We are surprised, we were ready to finalize 
the texts we had already agreed upon.  Now, we have to keep 
working on these issues. We are now standing in a different 
ground'." 
 
"The Central American negotiation teams have stated that the U.S. 
changed the texts on the issues of public contracts and 
concessions, which was agreed upon on the last round. Melvin 
Redondo, the Honduran lead negotiator said, `There are new 
proposals of the final texts of some issues we had already 
discussed.  However, the negotiations are still open, and there 
is still time to present other proposals'." 
 
"Despite these disagreements, the negotiations have progressed. 
For instance, the teams reached an agreement on the regulations 
to determine the measures and weigh standards to be used in the 
trade of goods and services among all countries.  There was also 
some progress on the environmental, labor and services issues." 
 
Palmer