VZCZCXYZ0027
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHZP #0329/01 1161627
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 251627Z APR 08
FM AMEMBASSY PANAMA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1979
INFO RUEHZA/WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE
RUEHBO/AMEMBASSY BOGOTA 2680
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEHRC/DEPT OF AGRICULTURE WASHDC
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF ENERGY WASHINGTON DC
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC

NCLAS PANAMA 000329 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/CEN - TELLO 
ALSO FOR WHA/EPSC - SHAPIRO AND SALAZAR 
STATE PASS TO USTR - D. OLIVER 
USDOC - M. GAISFORD 
TREASURY - S. GRAY 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ETRD ECON ENRG EWWT PGOV PM
SUBJECT: NEW TRADE MINISTER FOCUSED ON TPA AND CONTINUITY 
 
REF: PANAMA 0233 
 
This message is Sensitive but Unclassified.  Please Handle 
Accordingly. 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary: Minister of Commerce & Industry Carmen 
Gisela Vergara is focused on securing U.S. ratification of 
the U.S. Panama Trade Promotion Agreement (TPA).  She was 
confident that Pedro Miguel Gonzalez (PMG) will exit as 
Panama's National Assembly President in September and expects 
the GOP would implement necessary changes on labor matters 
only after the U.S. ratifies the TPA.  Vergara has also 
reached out to major prospective U.S. investors, including 
Occidental Petroleum and Ports America, to reassure them of 
her intent to continue with the trade and investment policies 
pursued by ex-Minister Alejandro Ferrer.  Panamanian business 
leaders and U.S. investors were pleased with Torrijos' choice 
of Vergara.  End summary. 
 
Vergara: GOP to Fix Labor Issues post-TPA Ratification 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Newly-minted Minister of Commerce & Industry Carmen 
Gisela Vergara told Ambassador on April 18 that she was 
focused on continuing with the trade and investment agenda 
that the GOP had pursued under ex-Minister Alejandro Ferrer. 
She said her top priority is to secure U.S. ratification of 
the Trade Promotion Agreement (TPA).  Acknowledging that 
Panama must still address lingering USG concerns on labor 
issues, she said the GOP had drafted the executive decrees 
necessary to do so but would carry them out as part of the 
implementation process once the U.S. ratifies the TPA. 
Vergara maintained that doing so absent U.S. ratification 
could otherwise "detonate" problems with business and labor 
groups.  She noted that, ironically, some of the groups that 
had previously opposed the TPA had come around on trade and 
are now clamoring for the GOP to push harder for its 
ratification by the U.S. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Vergara said that the GOP and Panamanian business 
leaders were anxious to "get the ball rolling again" on 
Panama's TPA, noting that the Panama Chamber of Commerce 
might organize a September 2008 event in Washington to get 
Panama back on Washington's radar.  However, Vergara was 
quick to recognize the obstacles posed by the presence of 
Pedro Miguel Gonzalez (PMG) as Panama's National Assembly 
President and the current imbroglio in Washington over the 
Colombia deal.  She said she was "99.999 percent sure" that 
PMG would be replaced as Assembly President come September. 
She believed that PMG had already decided against seeking a 
second year at the Assembly's helm owing to his need to focus 
on winning re-election from his district in the interior. 
She expected a long line of would-be PMG replacements would 
emerge in July-August, as the upcoming legislative year could 
be their "last chance" to win the title of Assembly 
President. 
 
Vergara Promises Continuity for U.S. Investors 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Vergara visited Los Angeles, CA in early April to 
reassure key prospective U.S. investors of her commitment to 
continuing Ferrer's policies.  She told Occidental Petroleum 
executives that their proposed $8 billion refinery in western 
Panama remained a "top priority" for the GOP.  She said Oxy 
and its partner, Qatar Petroleum (QP), will visit Panama in 
mid-May to begin negotiating the text of a "contract law" the 
GOP would put forward once Oxy and QP complete their costing 
studies (likely in August) and decide to proceed.  Oxy execs 
told Econ Chief on April 17 that they were pleased with 
Vergara's presence as Minister and the GOP's handling thus 
far of the project. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) President Torrijos also tasked Vergara with leading 
the GOP's direct negotiations for a $400-500 million 
"megaport" with a Ports America/Cosco joint venture.  (The 
two firms were the last two remaining in the GOP's earlier 
public bidding process for a major container terminal to be 
developed near the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal.  As 
the two opted to pursue the project through a joint venture, 
the GOP abandoned the licitation and decided in early April 
to negotiate a direct deal with them.)  Ports America 
executives told Econ Chief on April 17 that they, too, were 
pleased with their meeting in Los Angeles with Vergara.  They 
believed the continuity she offers avoided what otherwise 
might have been a six-month delay following Ferrer's 
departure. 
 
Comment: 
-------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) Given the other prospects for Ferrer's replacement 
(reftel), Panamanian business leaders and foreign investors 
were gratified, if not relieved, at Torrijos' choice of 
Vergara.  As Vice Minister, she enjoyed a reputation as 
honest and hard-working.  A friend of Ferrer's since 
childhood (she considered him "like a big brother"), Vergara 
appears highly committed to seeing his trade and investment 
agenda through to the end of the Torrijos Administration's 
term (Sept. 2009).  Her confidence about PMG's possible exit 
as Assembly President echoes similar statements we have heard 
in recent weeks from other top GOP officials, but does not 
appear based on any first-hand discussions with PMG.  End 
comment. 
 
(SBU) Biography - Carmen Gisela Vergara 
--------------------------------------- 
 
Carmen Gisela Vergara is a lawyer who graduated from the 
University of Panama with a degree in Law and Political 
Science.  She earned a Masters in Economic Law at the 
Universidad del Externado in Bogota, Colombia; a Masters in 
Private Law from the University of Panama; and a Certificate 
in International Commercial Negotiations from the University 
of Santiago, Chile.  She also studied Foreign Investment 
Promotion at the World Bank.  Vergara has presented numerous 
advanced training courses and seminars on foreign investment 
promotion, the promotion of exports, foreign trade, 
entrepreneurship, business plan development, leadership, 
motivation, and team-building. 
 
Vergara has worked in both the public and private sectors in 
different capacities, such as: Judge Executor, Executive 
Sub-Director of the National Commission for Investment 
Promotion "Pro Panama," National Director for Promotion of 
Production and Investment of the Vice Ministry of Foreign 
Trade, and Manager of the Business Technology Accelerator at 
the City of Knowledge's "International Tecnopark."  She 
served for five years as Panama's Alternate Representative 
before the OAS' Inter-American Commission on Women and was a 
member of the OAS' Non-Permanent Specialized Committees. 
Vergara is an arbitrator at Panama's Center for Conciliation 
and Arbitration, a member of the National Bar Association, 
and the National Union of Lawyers.  She also served as 
Assistant Professor for International Trade Negotiations in 
the Global MBA programs of the Tecnologico de Monterrey and 
the Thunderbird School of Global Management. 
 
Vergara is a single mother of an adolescent daughter.  She 
spent a portion of her high school years as an exchange 
student in Kentucky and speaks English fluently.  Although 
she is not flashy, Vergara is highly regarded by Panamanian 
business leaders as an honest, hardworking professional.  In 
late 2007, the Panama Chamber of Commerce approached her to 
run a new think tank, but she declined, apparently in 
anticipation of her possible rise to succeed Alejandro Ferrer. 
EATON