US embassy cable - 03TEGUCIGALPA69

UNCLAS TEGUCIGALPA 000069 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR PD/WHA (MBUCKLEY); IIP/G/WHA DIPASQUALE; EB/EPPD DCLUNE; 
USTR AGASH 
INFO IIP/T/ES 
EMBASSIES FOR PAOS, IOs, 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OIIP, KPAO, HO, PA, ETRD, USTR 
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: CAFTA LAUNCH 
 
 
1. January 9: "La Tribuna," a Liberal Party Tegucigalpa- 
based daily, carried a full-page article on the CAFTA launch 
using IIP press release with headline "U.S. and Central 
American countries initiated free trade negotiations." 
 
2. "Tiempo," San Pedro Sula-based liberal paper owned by 
businessman and congressional deputy Jaime Rosenthal, also 
carried the banner headline: "CAFTA negotiations will bump 
agricultural products" and "U.S. and Central America will 
strengthen trade." 
 
3. "El Heraldo," moderate Tegucigalpa-based daily, and "La 
Prensa," Liberal daily based in San Pedro Sula carried full 
page articles, entitled respectively "Central America and 
the U.S. on the way to Free Trade" and "The first agreements 
of the Free Trade Agreement with the U.S. -have been 
reached" 
 
4. January 10: "El Heraldo" and "Tiempo" carried half-page 
articles on CAFTA from a Washington-based reporter: "North 
American Manufacturers support CAFTA." 
 
5. National TV and radio news program gave full coverage to 
the CAFTA launch using the IIP press release and 
international video.  Nation-wide radio station HRN and 
Radio America read the press release. 
 
6. An editorial in "Tiempo" entitled: U.S. and Central 
American Free Trade Agreement"- "the first free trade 
negotiations between Central American countries and the U.S. 
promoted by President Bush will take place at the end of the 
month. The completion of CAFTA has among its political goals 
that Central America should be prepared to join the FTAA - 
projected to be completed in 2005, although at the moment 
several MERCOSUR countries have expressed a strong 
opposition to an FTAA agreement and the creation of 
sufficient employment to avoid the loss of the Central 
American labor force to migration to the U.S. 
 
7. "There is no doubt that these negotiations will be 
complex and difficult, because in between there are two 
asymmetric bases: "the unequal development among Central 
American countries, and that of Central America with the 
U.S." In general terms what it pictures is the shark and the 
sardines. 
 
8. "The fact is that Central American negotiators should be 
of great experience in order to present the value of the 
regional development situation and translate these into an 
adequate safe-guard without losing sight of the importance 
of the global feeling of these negotiations."  They must 
also pay special attention to production problems and 
farming commercialization, which is the backbone of the 
Central American economies; for this, they need to pay 
attention to the Mexican experience with NAFTA" 
 
9. "The completion and implementation of CAFTA is a 
overarching goal of regional development, but only if we 
know how to negotiate and discover in the North American 
positions a true understanding and political support for 
building a growing economy in Central America the importance 
of the inclusion of the labor rights so vital to Central 
American integration." 
 
Palmer