VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHSJ #0862/01 2811509
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 081509Z OCT 09
FM AMEMBASSY SAN JOSE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1283
INFO RUEHZA/WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SAN JOSE 000862 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL ECON CS HO AMGT OPDC OVIP
SUBJECT: PATHWAYS TO PROSPERITY:  COSTA RICA PREPARES FOR 
MINISTERIAL 
 
¶1. SUMMARY.  Costa Rican officials are working diligently to 
prepare for a successful Pathways to Prosperity ministerial 
meeting in December, which they hope Secretary Clinton will 
attend.  In a meeting with visiting State Department 
officials, they undertook to coordinate efforts to improve and 
standardize the content of the draft working papers.  They 
also agreed on measures to continue involving only recognized 
Honduran officials in preparation for the ministerial. 
Meanwhile, the business community in Costa Rica has not heard 
about Pathways from the government but is interested in being 
involved.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2.  WHA/EPSC Director Matt Rooney, EEB/TPP/BTA Director Bob 
Manogue, and WHA/EPSC officer Susan Garro visited Costa Rica 
September 16-17 to discuss Pathways to Prosperity with Costa 
Rican counterparts in preparation for the ministerial meeting 
in San Jose in December.  They held a productive joint meeting 
with officials from the Export Promotion Ministry (COMEX) and 
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and, separately, with 
the Chairs of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) and 
the Chamber of Exporters of Costa Rica (CADEXCO). 
 
¶3.  In the meeting with COMEX and the MFA, the delegation and 
their counterparts reached agreement on how to manage the role 
played by Honduras in Pathways.  Honduras is responsible for 
preparing one of four working papers to be presented at the 
December ministerial, and progress had been stymied since the 
assumption of power by the de facto government.  The group 
agreed that President Zelaya's Minister of Economy, Fredis 
Cerrato, would continue to coordinate the effort on this 
paper, while the technical work would be performed by staff of 
CENPROMYPE, an agency of the Central American Integration 
System that focuses on small and medium enterprises.  COMEX 
representative Esteban Aguero noted that, at a recent meeting, 
Central American foreign ministers had expressed openness to a 
solution of this nature.  The Costa Rican officials agreed to 
circulate to the governments participating in Pathways an 
updated e-mail addresses list that excluded officials in the 
Honduran de facto ministries and included CENPROMYPE.  This 
step was important, since technical level officials were 
communicating frequently via e-mail, and they inadvertently 
had been including Honduran officials who should not have been 
involved. 
 
¶4.  Turning to the substance of the draft working papers, 
WHA/EPSC Director Rooney expressed concern that they were 
uneven, ranging from simply listing programs without analyzing 
lessons learned or highlighting successes, to laying out 
useful suggestions for sharing of best practices.  Aguero 
agreed and undertook to coordinate with the working group 
leaders and other interested countries to standardize the 
papers, ensuring they included appropriate analysis.  He 
suggested shifting the original planning schedule by a month, 
requiring the papers to be completed by late October or early 
November, and stressed that he wanted the declaration to be 
completed prior to the ministerial meeting.   He noted that 
the Inter-American Development Bank had offered assistance. 
 
¶5.  The Government of Costa Rica (GOCR) was very hopeful that 
Secretary Clinton would attend the Pathways ministerial, 
Aguero emphasized.  He said President Arias and Foreign 
Minister Stagno planned to invite her when they met with her 
in New York on the margins of the UN General Assembly.  (Note: 
The conversation in New York ultimately focused mainly on the 
Honduras crisis, but the Secretary did express continued 
commitment to Pathways.  End note.)  Aguero noted that the 
Central American presidents would hold a summit in San Jose 
December 7 to 9.  Therefore, if Secretary Clinton came to the 
Pathways ministerial December 10 or 11, she could meet with 
them.  In addition, the GOCR could plan activities for her 
related to climate change, gender, youth, and/or development 
of small and medium enterprises.  Aguero made clear that Costa 
Rica was willing to adjust the dates of the ministerial to 
accommodate Secretary Clinton's schedule.  Rooney responded 
that perhaps more important than the dates was the expected 
outcome; there needed to be a good result to make it 
worthwhile for the Secretary to participate. 
 
¶6.  The Costa Rican officials commended the USG's efforts to 
host in October a program fostering women entrepreneurs' 
access to international markets and finance.  Rooney suggested 
that Costa Rican officials host a follow-on event in San Jose 
to leverage the experience of the Costa Rican participants to 
a wider audience. 
 
¶7.  EEB/TPP/BTA Director Manogue asked the Costa Ricans for 
their honest assessment of the value of Pathways to Prosperity 
for their country.  Aguero responded enthusiastically that 
Pathways opened the door to working with economic partners on 
social issues that arose in the context of trade agreements 
but were not addressed by them.  Manogue suggested that it was 
essential for each participating government to identify 
 
several specific objectives that they wished to accomplish 
through Pathways. 
 
¶8.  In their meeting with the delegation, the CADEXCO and 
AmCham Chairs said they had not heard about Pathways from the 
GOCR.  However, they believed it could be a useful forum to 
address concerns about issues that were related to but not 
covered by trade agreements. 
 
¶9.  Commenting that free trade was important but not enough, 
CADEXCO Chairwoman Monica Araya described the associations' 
efforts to prepare their members to compete.  She and AmCham 
Chairwoman Lynda Solar stressed that GOCR officials were not 
trained adequately to administer Costa Rica's free trade 
agreements (FTAs).  As an example, she described a case in 
which GOCR officials had given a business export permits for 
three containers of perishable merchandise.  However, when the 
product arrived in the Dominican Republic, Dominican officials 
halted the shipment, because it lacked appropriate paperwork 
from Costa Rica.  The business owner had to fly to the 
Dominican Republic, and she and CADEXCO spent days resolving 
the problem.  Araya said the trade associations have compiled 
a book that analyzed the performance of the GOCR institutions 
involved in FTAs.  She underscored that the GOCR must invest 
in training personnel in order to be able to manage the FTAs 
effectively.  Rooney said the trade associations' book could 
be of interest to the Pathways working group on 
competitiveness and cross-border movement of trade chaired by 
Panama.  Manogue stressed that specific issues arising from 
the implementation of CAFTA should be dealt with in the 
mechanisms provided for by CAFTA, while agreeing that Pathways 
would be a useful tool for sustaining the political commitment 
to needed reforms. 
 
¶10.  Araya and Solar thought it would be important for private 
sector representatives to participate in the Pathways 
ministerial.  Rooney welcomed their interest.  At the same 
time, he explained some private sector participants in other 
international fora had found the discussions sterile, and 
Pathway organizers wanted to avoid that dynamic.  Solar asked 
whether CAFTA trade capacity building funds could be directed 
to Pathways projects.  Rooney responded that Pathways did not 
involve assistance projects but worked at a policy level in 
parallel to those programs. 
 
¶11.  COMMENT:  Costa Rica's Export Promotion Ministry 
officials are truly enthusiastic about Pathways and will do 
everything possible to make the ministerial a success.  That 
said, they have not yet been able to articulate concrete 
outcomes that they would like to see from Pathways.  We will 
continue to encourage them to try to identify specific 
objectives.  Without that vision, Pathways will have limited 
impact on the lives of Costa Rican citizens.  END COMMENT. 
The delegation cleared this message. 
BRENNAN