It is never to be expected in a revolution that every man is to change his opinion at the same moment. There never yet was any truth or any principle so irresistibly obvious that all men believed it at once.
~ Thomas Paine

Voting on trade policy: Costa Ricans nearly dump corporate trade deal

On October 7th, Costa Rican voters took to the polls for a historic referendum, the first chance ever for citizens to vote up or down on a free trade agreement.   The controversial result was the ratification of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). 

Despite widespread allegations of misconduct on the part of the “Yes” campaign, news media and the U.S. and Costa Rican governments, the returns reveal tangible victories, even in defeat, for the global movement for a democratic global economy. 

First, they show the strength of the movement for Fair Trade.  The campaign for “No” on CAFTA was more successful than anyone predicted.  As late as a week prior to the referendum, independent polling showed the “No” position far ahead, favored by 61 percent of likely voters.  A “No” campaign march just before the vote drew a crowd to the capitol building in San Jose that the Associated Press estimated at over 100,000.  The pre-vote polls, along with the mobilizing capacity of the “No” campaign shown by the extraordinarily high turnout — Costa Rica is a country of only four million — led many observers to believe the “No” campaign would overcome the financial odds and carry the day.

The opposition to CAFTA was defeated at the last minute, when the Bush administration threatened economic retaliation would follow a “No” result, effectively a campaign stunt for the “Yes” in violation of Costa Rican election law.  The statement was made at the beginning of a blackout period that bans electioneering in the last few days before a vote, leaving the “No” campaign’s unable to respond in the media, which heavily covered the Bush administration’s threats.

But critics still point to the narrow margin as definitive proof that NAFTA-style trade deals are anti-democratic.  According to Lori Wallach, Director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, CAFTA’s NAFTA-like provisions that give corporations new rights to challenge domestic laws and override public interest policies are what fueled the “No” campaign, revealing their anti-democratic nature and unpopularity.   “That nearly half the public in Latin America’s richest free-market democracy opposed CAFTA despite the intensive campaign in favor of it should end the repeated claims that pushing more NAFTA-style trade deals is critical to U.S. foreign policy interests in the region or helps the U.S. image,” she said.  Given the stakes, the referendum itself could be seen as a vote on the future of Costa Rican democracy.   Wallach notes:

This vote also debunks the claim that these pacts are motivated out of U.S. altruism to help poor people in trade partner countries, given that many of the people in question just announced that they themselves don’t want this kind of trade policy.  This policy, supported by the elite, will help foreign investors seize control of their natural resources, undermine access to essential services, displace peasant farmers and jack up medical prices.

According to Ottón Solís, a leader of the “No” campaign and former presidential candidate, “The fundamental problem is that, on many issues, CAFTA would give multinational corporations more power than our government” and would thus interfere with his county’s long traditions of democracy and providing for the general welfare.

That the “Yes” campaign was forced to make its case at all is a major gain for the fair trade movement.  Unlike the ratification processes in the other CAFTA signatory countries, where governments suppressed dissent and even convened in secret in order to pass the deals through their legislatures, Costa Rican fair traders succeeded in forcing the plebiscite.  Without a popular vote, President Oscar Arias, the victor of a recent and tight election would have risked dividing the country and crippling his government.  The best lesson of the Costa Rican plebiscite is that the long overdue democratization of trade policy in the Americas appears to be gathering steam.

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