US embassy cable - 05TEGUCIGALPA1091

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MEDIA REACTION ON CAFTA, MAY 20, 2005

Identifier: 05TEGUCIGALPA1091
Wikileaks: View 05TEGUCIGALPA1091 at Wikileaks.org
Origin: Embassy Tegucigalpa
Created: 2005-05-20 19:20:00
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Tags: OIIP KPAO ETRD HO USTR
Redacted: This cable was not redacted by Wikileaks.
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

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 

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