Central America rallies round TT

COSTA RICA will vigorously lobby Central American nations to support Trinidad and Tobago as the site for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) Secretariat. This was the promise given by Costa Rican Ambassador to TT, Carlos Echeverria, when he addressed a news conference at Knowsley Building yesterday.

Echeverria hailed Prime Minister Patrick Manning and the TT Government for being instrumental in securing Caricom support for former Costa Rican president Dr Miguel Angel Rodriguez’s candidature for the General Secretariat of the Organisation of American States (OAS). That support was officially communicated to the Costa Rican Government by current Caricom chairman and Jamaican PM PJ Patterson on December 16. In a statement, Rodriguez said Caricom’s support, “responds to a work of good will and rapprochement between the nations of the Caribbean and Central America and the nations of the Caribbean and Costa Rica.” Foreign Affairs Minister Knowlson Gift said Rodriguez contacted him in Washington DC on Tuesday to express his thanks.

Echeverria said in return, the Costa Rican Government “will carry on the necessary efforts in order to reach a consensus among the Central American countries to support the aspiration of TT” to become the headquarters of the FTAA Secretariat. Echeverria disclosed that a summit of Central American nations is currently underway in Belize, and Costa Rica will lobby for TT at the summit. Costa Rica was the first Latin American nation to support TT’s bid for the FTAA Secretariat. The Ambassador added that Central American support for TT as the site for the FTAA Secretariat was “looking well” at this time. Gift explained that Caricom’s approach to Costa Rica’s candidacy for the OAS Secretariat was done on the basis of a quid pro quo arrangement.